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Annual and Sustainability Report 2017The Weleda Group and Weleda AG

Contents

KEY FIGURES AT A GLANCE

( INSIDE COVER PAGE)

SELECTED KEY FIGURES

FINANCIAL KEY FIGURES:

ECONOMY

VALUE ADDED STATEMENT

1 BRIEF PROFILE

GROUP STRUCTURE AND SHAREHOLDERS

2 EDITORIAL OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

3 BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF WELEDA AG

4 THE EXECUTIVE BOARD OF WELEDA AG

5 MISSION, VISION, GOALS

6 WELEDA SUSTAINABILITY PROGRAMME:

SEVEN AREAS OF ACTION

8 PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT AND PRODUCTS

14 ECOLOGICAL FARMING AND BIODIVERSITY

18 RESPECTFUL SUPPLY CHAIN

22 SUSTAINABLE SITES, PRODUCTION AND

LOGISTICS

26 MEANINGFUL AND EFFECTIVE WORK

30 CULTURAL AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT AND

RELATIONSHIPS

34 MANAGEMENT AND FINANCE

40 DEVELOPMENT IN THE MARKETS

42 MANAGEMENT REPORT

45 2017 FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

45 WELEDA GROUP

63 WELEDA AG

NOTES

78 ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY TABLE

81 EMPLOYEES TABLE

82 GLOBAL REPORTING INITIATIVE

83 CONTRIBUTION TO THE SUSTAINABLE

DEVELOPMENT GOALS

84 CERTIFICATIONS

85 CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

86 ADDRESSES

PUBLICATION DETAILS

Cover design: In our Report we intro-duce you to seven people. They are connected to Weleda as employee or partner and fill the vision of Weleda with life in their work and leisure time.

Brief profile

Weleda is the world’s leading manufacturer of certified natural cosmetics and anthroposophic pharmaceuticals. The product portfolio comprises more than 1,000 pharmaceuticals and a wide range of extemporaneous pharmaceutical preparations, as well as 120 natural and organic cosmetics. They are developed based on a unique under-standing of people and nature. For decades, nearly 1,000 substances from nature have formed the foundation of our products, which con-tribute holistically to the health and wellbeing of people.

Weleda products are available in more than 50 countries. The com-pany employs over 2,440 people 1 worldwide to develop, produce and market its products. The Swiss stock corporation has its headquar-ters in Arlesheim (Switzerland) and its largest branch in Schwäbisch Gmünd (Germany). The Group furthermore includes 22 companies in 18 countries.

Anthroposophy inspires the view of the human being and understand-ing of nature that is at the heart of Weleda’s vision: contributing to a world in which the health and beauty of human beings and nature continually unfold.

Group structure and shareholders33.5 per cent of the capital and 76.5 per cent of the voting rights of Weleda AG are held by two principal shareholders: the General Anthroposophical Society (AAG, Dornach, Switzerland) and Klinik Arlesheim (KA, Arlesheim, Switzerland), formerly Ita Wegman Klinik AG. The remaining voting and non-voting shares are publicly floated. Under the Company’s articles of incorporation the registered shares of Weleda AG may be transferred only with the written permission of the Board of Directors of Weleda AG. Acquirers must be members of the General Anthroposophical Society, Dornach. In order to be valid, the transfers have to be registered in the Company’s share register.

Capital structure of Weleda AG 2

Number of shares Nominal capital in CHF

Nominal registered voting shares CHF 1,000 3,478 3,478,000

Nominal registered voting shares CHF 112.50 6,880 774,000

Nominal registered voting shares CHF 125 3,984 498,000

Nominal registered non-voting shares CHF 500 19,000 9,500,000

Total nominal capital 14,250,000

1 Number of persons including trainees, apprentices, marginally employed staff, volunteers

2 The share capital is fully paid. As at December 31st 2017, there is neither authorised nor contingent share capital. Every registered voting share entitles the bearer to a single vote in the General Shareholders’ Meeting.

1

Organic proportion of plant-based raw materials

Proportion of renewable energy (electricity)

Recycling pro-portion of product packaging (cosmetics)

Proportion of waste that is reused

Selected key figures

12,960 12,944

+12.4 %

46.7 %

+2.9 percentage points

+70.7 %

Employees

Result for the yearin 1,000 EUR

97 %

46 %

98 %

Switzerland, Germany, FranceFor production facilities of cosmetics and pharma-ceutical products: 100 %

All regional companies:90 %

1,700

2,440740

female

male

Weleda is represented on all five continents and in over 50 countries.

Investmentsin intangible assets and property, plant and equipmentin 1,000 EUR

Equity ratio

Page 40

81 %

+ 2.4 %

+ 1.6 %

+ 2.2 %

Reuse through composting, repur-posing, recycling, recovery, thermal use or other utili sation.

49 nationalities

– 1 %

+ 0,2 %

+ 3 %

± 0 %

Net salesin 1,000 EUR

27 %Pharmaceuticals

73 %Natural and organic cosmetics

400,902

+ 2.8 %

18,691

EBITin 1,000 EUR

– 21.9 %

Value added statement

2017in million EUR

2017in %

2016in million EUR

2016in %

Change in %2017/2016

Origin

Revenue (sales, other income and interest income) 403.5 393.0 + 2.7

Input (cost of materials, changes in inventory, depreciation and amortisation and other inputs) – 234.4 – 227.4 + 3.1

Value added 169.1 165.6 + 2.1

Distribution

To employees (employee income, as well as social contributions and Pension Fund) 147.7 87.3 139.0 83.9 + 6.3

To public authorities (taxes) 4.6 2.7 10.2 6.2 – 54.9

To charitable organisations (donations), pursuant to paragraph 2 (3) of the articles of incorporation 2.5 1.5 2.9 1.8 – 13.8

To lenders (interest expense) 1.3 0.8 2.0 1.2 – 35.0

To shareholders (dividends) 0.9 1 0.5 0.9 0.5 + 0.0

To the company (retained earnings) 12.1 7.2 10.6 6.4 + 14.2

Value added 169.1 100.0 165.6 100.0 + 2.1

All information based on average rates for the year. Comments to the value added statement: see page 36.

1 Pursuant to the proposal made by the Board of Directors to the General Shareholders’ Meeting on June 8th 2018

Key fig

ure

s at a glan

ce

Economy

2017in 1,000 EUR

2017in 1,000 CHF 1

2016in 1,000 EUR

2016in 1,000 CHF 1

Change in % 2017/2016

based on EUR values

Weleda Group – key figures

Net sales 400,902 445,630 389,811 424,927 + 2.8

Net sales natural and organic cosmetics 292,385 325,006 280,757 306,049 + 4.1

Net sales pharmaceuticals 108,517 120,624 109,054 118,878 – 0.5

Operating result (EBIT) 18,691 20,776 23,928 26,084 – 21.9

EBIT in % of net sales 4.7 % 6.1 %

Consolidated result for the year 12,960 14,406 11,528 12,566 + 12.4

Cash flow from operating activities 29,303 32,572 19,448 21,200 + 50.7

Net assets 2 37,439 43,809 22,442 24,058 + 66.8

Investments in intangible assets and property, plant and equipment 12,944 14,388 7,585 8,268 + 70.7

Full-time equivalents (FTE) 2,077 2,037 + 2.0

Balance sheet total 253,788 296,970 248,599 266,497 + 2.1

Shareholders’ equity 118,622 138,806 108,810 116,644 + 9.0

Equity ratio 46.7 % 43.8 %

Weleda AG – key figures

Result for the year – 2,509 8,059 – 131.1

Shareholders’ equity 84,518 88,016 – 4.0

Dividend in % of nominal value 7.0 % 3 7.0 %

1 At balance sheet date or average rates for the year

2 Cash and cash equivalents and securities less current and non-current interest-bearing liabilities

3 Pursuant to the proposal made by the Board of Directors to the General Shareholders’ Meeting on June 8th 2018

Financial key figures

Dear Readers, Board of Directors of Weleda AG

We are pleased to once again present an integrated Annual and Sustainability Report this year. Sustainable business activities are a matter close to our heart that ensure we play our part in creating a world in which the health and beauty of human beings and nature continually unfold.

Over the past year, we have fundamentally reworked our sustainability strategy, and this has now been adopted. In developing this strategy, we identified seven areas of action on which we will be particularly focusing over the next few years. The three pillars of sustainability – economic viability, environmental protection and social responsibility – are implicitly included in every area of action. In line with the new strategy, the report is divided into seven chapters:

Product development and products Ecological farming and biodiversity Respectful supply chain Sustainable sites, production and logistics Meaningful and effective work Cultural and social development and relationships Management and finance

The performance of Weleda is above all attributable to the efforts of our 2,440 employ-ees. Each of the seven chapters begins with the short story of an employee or some-one who works with Weleda, sharing what they do in and for the company and beyond. We are calling these contributions they make “goodprints” – as opposed to footprints.

I would like to take this opportunity to express my warm thanks to all employees for their dedication. In 2017 they played a crucial part in enabling us to once again conclude the year successfully. On this basis, we on the Board of Directors have made the follow-ing strategic decisions: to renew our infrastructure with the core element of a new produc-tion and logistics building in Schwäbisch Gmünd, to develop the new pharmaceuticals strategy, to revise the range strategy for natural and organic cosmetics, to carry out addi-tional investment in research and development, and to formulate concepts for Weleda Treatment Studios.

I look forward to continuing to work with you for our customers and a humane society.Yours,

Paul MackayChairman of the Board of Directors of Weleda AG

It is a matter close to my heart to take Weleda in a direction

in which it can make a unique and lasting contribution to society,

the people associated with the company, and nature.

Paul Mackay, Chairman of the Board of Directors

A successful, cooperative leadership at Weleda is reliant on an effec-

tive organisation and good corporate governance 1. It is to this that I am

personally committed.

Dr Jürg Galliker, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors and independent

lawyer in Basel

The research and development of anthro posophic pharmaceuticals is a cause

that I particularly care about. I am devoting my efforts to making them available worldwide

in a cost-effective way.

Prof. Dr Harald Matthes, senior doctor at Havelhöhe Community Hospital in Berlin

Medicine and cosmetics come from the same source. There are still

many treasures to be found. By discovering these, we open the door

to a successful future at Weleda.

Elfi Seiler, pharmacist by training and co-owner of the St Peter Pharmacy

in Zurich

The contribution that Weleda makes to people, society and the environment is extremely

important for us as owners. Creating premium innovative products for healing and care with

passion and love – that is my goal.

Dr Andreas Jäschke, Managing Director of Klinik Arlesheim

1 Principles of corporate governance (page 85)2 3

B O A R D O F D I R E C T O R S O F W E L E D A A GE D I T O R I A L O F T H E B O A R D O F D I R E C T O R S

The Executive Board of Weleda AG

As the person with responsibility for the markets, I take the view that we must never lose sight of our customers in all decisions we take. In addition,

the internationalisation and entrepreneurialism of Weleda are particularly important to me.

Andreas Sommer, Chief Commercial Officer

My aim is to strengthen the financial resilience of Weleda in the long

term, structuring the value chain as efficiently as possible and distributing this

value in line with our vision.

Michael Brenner, Chief Financial Officer

I am responsible for the areas of research and development as well as production. Scientifically tested,

innovative pharmaceuticals and natural and organic cosmetics with the classic Weleda signature as well as

a forward-looking production environment are my guiding principles.

Dr Aldo Ammendola, Chief Research and Development Officer / Chief Operations Officer

Mission, Vision, Goals

Why does Weleda make a difference for the world? How do we want to realise our vision? When doing so, what is the specific goal or material requirement that we are aiming for? The declaration on our Mission, Vision and Goals is our guiding star for the work we do as a company.

Inspired by anthroposophy, Weleda researches, develops, creates and sells pharmaceu-ticals and cosmetics.

Weleda products activate the healing forces of human beings and nature.

Weleda sustainably develops its business in harmony with nature and the human being.

GoalsVision Mission

GoalsMissionVision

Creating a world in which the health and beauty of human beings and nature continually unfold.

Vision Mission Goals

Weleda is the global market leader for anthroposophic pharmaceuticals and shares a responsibility for the system of anthroposophic medicine.

Weleda is a benchmark company and global market leader for certified natural and organic cosmetics.

Weleda develops markets in such a way as to achieve long-term market relevance.

4 5

M I S S I O N , V I S I O N , G O A L ST H E E X E C U T I V E B O A R D O F W E L E D A A G

Development of the Weleda Sustainability Programme

In the reporting year, we revised and further specified our Sustainability Programme in order to map out the value chain of Weleda in a traceable way and present our actions more clearly. It is now divided into seven areas of action, which will each be presented in the following chapters: with our commitments, targets and achievements as well as news from 2017.

Until now, the focus of our sustainability management had been on the three dimensions of sustainability: economic, environmental and social. Our reporting was structured accordingly. However, this categorisation meant many as-pects were artificially separated, such as the topic of supply chains, for example, which spans all dimensions. Our objec-tive was therefore to map out the Weleda value chain so that it can be clearly and effectively communicated.

Seven areas of actionThe Weleda sustainability flower with dimensions and ac-tion fields enabled us to draw contextual connections be-tween areas of action – with the corporate vision always at the centre (see page 5). The seven areas of action (see diagram on page 7) correspond to the core sustainability considerations at Weleda. In all areas, the activities are aimed at being socially responsible, environmentally friend-ly and commercially successful.

What Weleda stands forThe areas of action include commitments by which Weleda is already bound today. These are initiatives and achieve-ments, and voluntary undertakings and promises, in rela-tion to our business activities. In addition, we have defined commitments for the future which strive dynamically to support the Weleda vision and contribute to the sustainable development of the company. A few of the topics that are of particular importance to us are presented briefly here; others, such as packaging to name but one, can be found in the following pages.

Ecological farming and biodiversityHealthy soil plays an important role in enabling sustain-able agriculture to thrive in the long term. It is essential for the health and beauty of flora and fauna, so is ulti-mately a prerequisite for all Weleda products. As a com-pany, we are inextricably linked with organic farming. The organic share of our plant raw materials already stands at more than 80 per cent now.

We are especially closely aligned with biodynamic agricul-ture. It is our conviction that biodynamic cultivation is the most sustainable form of farming. For this reason, we have set ourselves the target of sig-nificantly raising the percentage of raw materials sourced from biodynamic cultivation over the next five years: to 30 per cent of the organic share. In addition, we intend to launch initiatives for biodynamic farming in collaboration with our partners to raise awareness of issues such as bio-diversity, insects and healthy soil in local and global cam-paigns.

Respectful supply chainWe strive to deliver comprehensive and measurable trans-parency and fairness within Weleda’s supply chains. Fur-ther, we want to prove that organic farming and biody-namic agriculture are beneficial to humans and nature alike. For this reason, we have decided to launch pilot projects for calculating the true cost of some lead plants (true cost accounting).

Sustainable management and financeTransparent business management with high ecosocial aspirations has been important for Weleda since the very start. In future, we will be involving our associated com-panies throughout the world even more strongly in order to reach ambitious ecosocial targets. Both internally and as a group we want to be more intensively connected to the world so that we as a company can positively influ-ence people and the planet. We will also be supporting the B Corp initiative, a global network of companies that has redefined what it means to be successful in business. “B” stands for benefit, having a positive impact. This is interwoven with a management approach comprising tools that offer guidance on how to consistently enhance this beneficial impact. Part of this is our efforts to further improve sustainability reporting and increase transparency on the impact and achievements of Weleda (www.bcorporation.net).

The next chapters on our areas of action will each intro-duce an individual. These are people from the world of Weleda who are doing good and consequently helping to make the world a better place – through their pro-

fessional work or with voluntary activities in their spare time. We have coined the term “goodprint” for this pos-itive work, as opposed to the already familiar concept of an ecological footprint.

Cultural and social develop-

ment and relationships

Management and finance

Product development and products

Respectful supply chain

Meaningful and effective work

Sustainable sites, production

and logistics

Ecological farming and biodiversity

Creating a world in which the

health and beauty of human beings and nature continually

unfold.

6 7

W E L E D A S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y P R O G R A M M EW E L E D A S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y P R O G R A M M E

Product development and productsWeleda has stood for a very special promise of quality since the start and this is also the foundation of our customers’ trust. Alongside high product quality, there is great demand for resource-efficient packaging today. Our research and development team have been working hard in this area for many years. They make a vital contribution to the future of Weleda, in natural and organic cosmetics as well as pharmaceuticals.

1

Weleda’s commitment to quality:

– NATRUE certification of natural and organic cosmetic products

– Products based on natural, nature-identical and derived natural substances

– No use of parabens, paraffins, synthetic fragrances, colourings or preservatives, gelatine, aluminium salts, phthalates, genetically modified raw materials or microplastics; and no animal testing for natural and organic cosmetics

High quality requirements for raw materials according to Weleda’s specifications: testing for pesticides, testing of all raw materials in our own analysis section

Raw materials are processed fresh and immediately: generally by in-house tincture manufacturing according to pharmaceutical methods.

In-house fragrance development: pure natural essential oils

Involvement in palm oil (see pages 16 and 18)

Packaging:

– Around 50 per cent of primary packaging materials are recycled

– Certified 100 per cent: paper, cardboard and package inserts of natural and organic cosmetic products

– Transport packaging made up 100 per cent of recycled fibres

– Made in Europe

What we have achieved so far – our commitments

Target achieved Target partially achieved Target not achieved

Further development of environmen-tally friendly, recyclable packaging for natural and organic cosmetics

Optimised screw cap for aluminium tubes in 2016 and 2017

Introduction of the harmony bottle (body oil with pump) that is 85 per cent recycled glass

Definition of sustainability criteria for new product development

First mineral oil-free colour printing on folding boxes

Continuation of targets:

Baby PET bottle with 50 per cent recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET)

Roll-on deodorant container with 50 per cent recycled high-density polyethylene (HDPE)

Sustainable materials for folding boxes and package inserts

Projects to replace aluminium tubes containing Coex plastic film with recycled HDPE

Concept to redesign transport packaging (cardboard)

Started process for concept development

Development of concept for transport packaging

Targets 2018Targets set for 2017 Achievements 2017

Sustainability must also be practical: new

mothers want to be able to open and close

baby oil bottles with one hand.

Murat Haner, Head of Packaging Development

at Weleda Switzerland

8

A R E A O F A C T I O NP R O D U C T D E V E L O P M E N T A N D P R O D U C T S

Overcoming boundaries. Perhaps sometimes finding a way to square the circle: what do tubes and bottles for Weleda’s natu-ral and organic cosmetics need to be made of to ensure they

protect their contents for three years, but are easily compostable on expiration? “This is what we are currently researching,” says Murat Haner, as well as how packaging could perhaps find a “second life”, as a decorative piece, for example. The Head of Packaging Development and his small team are constantly working on new solutions that will make the Company’s packaging for natural and organic cosmetics as well as medicinal products even more sustainable: “Our vision is modern, functional, sustainable packaging that customers love and also sim-plifies our processes.” The graduate in chemical engineering has been at Weleda for just under two years and much has already been achieved in that time (see column on right). This year, the calendula baby care range will become available with a practical flip-top on a plastic bottle that is made of 50 per cent recycled material. “In the nat-ural cosmetics sector, half is a lot,” Murat asserts. This does not make it cheaper but is consistent with the original mission of 1921 to be responsible in the use of resources. Murat Haner is also personally invested. He first discovered Weleda products in Vienna when he moved from western Turkey to work for an international company, first in Austria and later in Dusseldorf, before Weleda offered him a job. He now lives near Arlesheim, 2,500 kilometres from Izmir, with his wife Sebnem and their two-year-old daughter. The family prefers to buy fruit and vegetables locally at the market where it is fresh and comes without all the unnecessary packaging.

Murat Haner (39) is Head of

Packaging Development at

Weleda AG in Arlesheim and

Schwäbisch Gmünd. He has

worked for the company since

2016 and hopes soon to be able to manufacture

food-grade pack-aging directly

from the dispos-al of recyclable

waste.

New people in key positions

KIDS 2 IN 1

SHOWER & SHAMPOO

With three different Kids 2 in 1 Shower &

Shampoo options with fun designs, we now

offer care products for children alongside

our baby care range.

EDELWEISS

SUN CREAM

Weleda sun cream pre-viously had to be with-drawn from the market

in 2008 but in 2018 we launched five new sun

protection products. They use mineral non-nano

UV filters.

Chemist Bernhard Irrgang has been Head of Research and Devel-opment for Natural and Organic Cosmetics at Weleda since July 2017. This area comprises the teams in Galenic Development, Packaging Development, Active Substance Development and Fragrance Devel-opment as well as the Regulatory Affairs and Scientific Information departments. Bernhard Irrgang can look back on many years of experi-ence in the development of natural and organic cosmetics. As of July 2017, biologist

Gerald Künstle has headed up the newly established Pre clin-

ical Development Unit. His role is to collect scientific data and

facts for selected pharmaceuti-cals and consequently support

the marketing of these products.

BEAUTY BALM

After the successful introduction

of tinted lip balm, two face creams have

been on the market since the start of 2018:

Beauty Balm 5 in1 Tinted Day Cream in the

shades of nude or bronze.

GENTLE

CLEANSING FOAM

Since the start of 2018, the Weleda

facial cleansing line has been enhanced

with a cleansing foam.

FEEL GOOD SHOWER

LIMITED EDITION

Spicy ginger to feel great: this limited

edition shower gel has been available ex-

clusively in Austria, France, Germany and

Switzerland since spring 2018.

New products

We introduced 12 products in 2017 and early 2018. Weleda was also repositioned in two new market segments: sun care and care for children.

It is my aim to ensure that Weleda

regains its role as trendsetter in natural and organic cosmetics.

My goal is to underline the

efficacy of Weleda medicinal prod-ucts with scientific facts and

make them commercially successful as a result.

IN BRIEF

Successes in packaging development in 2017

4 tof material was saved by

optimising the weight of the screw cap for aluminium tubes.

85 %of each green glass bottle used

for body oils is recycled material – the highest share of recycled glass

possible. A pump dispenser also dis-penses the oil more easily.

250,000fewer package inserts were printed

following the switch to dual labels on body oils: the removable bottle label

now features the product information on the reverse side.

Further achievements For the first time, mineral

oil-free ink was used to print on folding boxes.

Aluminium barrier laminate (ABL) tubes were used for the new beauty balms: the plastic

tubes contain a thin aluminium layer which effectively protects

the product and at the same time improves ease of use.

The foam pump was optimised for the new cleansing foam.

Skin Food skin cream has been sold without a package insert

since September 2017.

10 11



“Research is essential for our survival”

Dr Aldo Ammendola took on the new role of Executive Board member with responsibility for Research and Development (R & D) in 2016. He talked to us about the challenges of researching complementary medicine and the further development of Weleda’s pharmaceuticals range.

What does research mean for Weleda?

ALDO AMMENDOLA: For a company like Weleda, R & D is essential for survival. Especially in the area of pharma-ceuticals, innovative research forms the basis of being able to offer patients proven effective and safe products. In addition, R & D makes a fundamental contribution to the financial stability of Weleda. Anthroposophy has served as our inspiration. It is the driving force behind the development and research of new medicinal products drawing on the latest scientific methods.

How has pharmaceuticals research changed

since you took over the unit?

ALDO AMMENDOLA: For a long time Weleda drew on the rich pool of traditional knowledge and above all concen-trated on managing and securing its very large existing range. About a year ago, we shifted our focus more towards the scientific research of selected products and innovation. The aim is to reconcile therapeutic variety with cost-effectiveness.

What do you think are the challenges for research

in complementary medicine?

ALDO AMMENDOLA: In contrast to the pharmaceutical giants, medium-sized companies such as Weleda have a limited availability of financial resources for the development of medicinal products. Conversely, it is important that the wealth of traditional knowledge from herbal medicine and anthroposophic medicine is brought into line with the demands of modern, evidence-based medicine and a clear-ly describable mode of action in terms of natural science.

How does Weleda benefit from the research?

ALDO AMMENDOLA: Research is always initially an invest-ment in the future. The findings of our current research activities will only be evident in a few years. For totally new medicinal products, the time horizon is even longer owing to the higher development effort that is required. The new spirit of research has already noticeably re-vived the working atmosphere – after years of stagna-tion during the restructuring phase, a spirit of excited optimism is now in the air. To the outside world, innova-tive research has enabled Weleda to position itself as a future-oriented and sustainable company. And as a company that recognises gaps in pharmaceutical and complementary medicine for the treatment of diseases and aims to plug these through effective and safe me-dicinal products.

Dr Aldo Ammendola in discussion with Christine Holzschuh, who works in the Analysis department in Schwäbisch Gmünd.

Galenic Development in Arlesheim: this is where research on the compo-sition of substances is con-ducted.

Research is always initially an invest-

ment in the future. The findings of our current research activities will

only be evident in a few years.

What type of research does Weleda

conduct?

ALDO AMMENDOLA: The focus of research in com-plementary medicine is on the aspects of quality, efficacy and safety. Specifically, Weleda carries out pharmaceutical research (further development of manufacturing methods), preclinical research (investigation of innovative therapies in non- clinical testing) and clinical research (pharmaceu-tical trials with healthy subjects and patients).

Who decides the area for research?

ALDO AMMENDOLA: The Company’s own experts and expert panels determine and quantify gaps in the pharmaceuticals market and identify the necessity for the research and further develop-ment of medicinal products. The medical need of patients and the predicted commercial success play an important role in this respect. Ultimately, the Executive Board and the Board of Directors decide whether research will be conducted in this field.

What is the current focus of your research?

ALDO AMMENDOLA: At present, our research activi-ties are concentrating on eye diseases and skin disorders as well as stress and sleep problems.

Which goals are you pursuing in the

Research department?

ALDO AMMENDOLA: In the medium term, we want to achieve first tangible successes and gradually expand the research at the same time. We are therefore on course to make some of our pharma-ceuticals marketable at an international level. Furthermore, we are developing our range in close cooperation with anthroposophic doctors.

>100 More than

100 employees work in the area of R & D.

Investment in the

double-digit millions is planned over

the next few years.

12 13


Ecological farming and biodiversity2The organic proportion of plant raw materials used in Weleda products is more than 80 per cent. By cultivating an area of just under 248 square kilometres worldwide in accordance with organic cultivation guidelines, which is the equivalent of almost 35,000 football pitches, we nurture biodiversity, soil health and the protection of water quality together with our partners. This results in humus-rich and fertile soils as well as healthy and strong plants – the basis for healthy products.

Organic share of at least 80 per cent

Largest biodynamic medicinal plant garden in Europe as well as other own gardens

Involvement in palm oil:

– Chair of the Executive Board of FONAP (Forum for Sustainable Palm Oil) and member of RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil)

– Pure palm oil of the highest quality: certifications include RSPO IP (Identity Preserved 1), Bio (organic), Fair Trade and more

– Palm derivatives are 100 per cent certified as RSPO MB (Mass Balance 2) and Book & Claim 3 by our suppliers.

Cultivation area of around 248 square kilometres for organic raw materials (including certified wild collection)

Involvement in seed initiatives: Organic Seeds Sunflower Initiative (IBS) and Hortus Officinarum association

Endangered and protected species from sustainable and organically certified sources (e. g. arnica)


1 Palm oil is verifiably derived 100 per cent from a single certified plantation. Traceability from the end product to the palm oil plantation can be guaranteed at all times.

2 Mass Balance supply chain model

3 The palm oil used in the end product is not physically certified, but the same volume of certificates is bought to offset use.

Further information can be found at www.forumpalmoel.org/certification/trade-options

Consistent organic proportion of 80 per cent

Organic standards implemented for new raw materials; new partnerships in compliance with organic standards

Continuation of target

Continuation: projects for the protection of biodiversity

Status report on biodiversity in three supply chains; project to plant hedges

Global launch of further projects to protect and maintain biodiversity in cultivation and collection regions


Publication of a Weleda garden book

Purchase of 1 square metre of organic land for every Werde magazine sold at the newsstand

New targets

In the stillness of our medicinal gardens I feel

how strongly we are all connected with nature.

It’s the essence of our medicines.

Claire Hattersley, Head Gardener, Weleda medicinal plant garden, at Weleda UK


14

A R E A O F A C T I O NE C O L O G I C A L F A R M I N G A N D B I O D I V E R S I T Y

Medicinal plant garden is UN Decade project

In recognition of its commitment to biodiver-sity, Weleda’s medicinal plant garden in Schwä-bisch Gmünd was selected as a project of the UN Decade on Biodiversity in September 2017.

Europe’s largest biodynamically cultivated medicinal plant garden provides a habitat for countless plant and animal species. Each year, the medicinal plant garden welcomes an average of 25,000 visitors and carries out around 700 tours. This is a chance for them to gain an insight into Weleda’s corporate concept, see the abun-dance of species in the garden as well as learning more about anthroposophic medicine and pharmacy. Since 2016, the medicinal plant garden has included an inter-cultural garden in which Weleda staff and people who have experienced displacement come together regularly to work on some of the land.

“We see the garden as a living organism,” says Head Gardener Michael Straub, adding: “Diversity stabilises the ecosystem and thwarts the proliferation of pests.”

Biodynamic cultivation in the medicinal plant garden functions in accordance with this principle. The prepon-derance of flowering plants is essential for the survival of many beneficial organisms. Hedges and flower strips offer a place for innumerable beneficial insects to live and feed, including Ichneumon parasitoid wasps, green lacewings and ladybirds. Weleda cultivates seven medic-inal plant gardens around the world.

Our medicinal plant garden is a living and breathing organism in which everything is interconnected.

Dorotheanthus bellidiformis. Claire Hattersley rather tenderly whispers the Latin name which she already learned from her father as a child. “The pink and orange mesembryanthemums in

our garden are like little gemstones sparkling in the sunshine,” says the Head Gardener of the Weleda medicinal plant garden in the East Midlands, though this plant is in fact native to the warm climes of South Africa. Her grandfather was also green-fingered and with this heritage Claire Hattersley together with her team is able to bring flowers to bloom in the heavy, moist soil of the garden north-west of Nottingham which include 50 medicinal plants such as calendula (marigold), camomile, oats and St. John’s wort for pharmaceuticals: “The biodynamic preparations help, but we also have to keep coming up with clever ideas.” Draining the ground is an option, “but we don’t want to battle the land, we want to work with it”. So wild flower meadows which like wet ground were created alongside flowerbeds, fields and ponds. As a result, the five hectares boast a wide variety of plants, butterflies, insects and birds all contributing to the biodiversity. Claire is delighted that “we also have a nature conservation organisation mowing our meadows and in turn improving the biodiversity of its own land with seeds from this mowed material”. A beekeeper has set up hives and reveals their secrets to groups of schoolchildren. In summer, workshops in biodynamic gardening will be held for the first time for Weleda Wellbeing Advisors, a role currently unique to England – so they can convey the inner value of the products to users even more effectively. In 2019, they will also be open to amateur gardeners. Claire Hattersley was once one herself. But after passing her exams in fine art and working in museum exhibition design for ten years, she found the call of her childhood love of gardening growing ever stronger. So, Claire applied at Weleda, fearing she would not stand a chance without any qualifications as a gardener. However, what counted was her passion and skilled interaction with the plants – and the rest is history.

Further information on the Weleda garden is available at www.weleda.co.uk/natural-ingredients/quality/weleda-gardens

Claire Hattersley (55) manages the Weleda medicinal

plant garden in Ilkeston, in the UK. She has worked for

Weleda UK since 1996. Pumpkins are also grown in the

garden and used in soups served to

colleagues in the office, which is

five minutes away: “This brings the

garden to them.”

Further information is available at www.undekade-biologischevielfalt.de

IN BRIEF

Bee hotels in Australia Since 2016, 500 schools have received a Weleda Bee B & B

Hotel. This has enabled 100,000 children to learn about the

importance of biodiversity and the role that pollinators

and insects play in agriculture. A further 500 nesting aids

are currently being distributed across the country.

€ 6,000Donation for bird protection Weleda Spain extended inter-

national Earth Day on April 22 nd into an Earth Month and do-

nated one per cent of all sales proceeds to SEO/BirdLife which

is the biggest bird conserva-tion charity in the country. This money will be used to renat ural-

ise the banks of the Man zanares river in central Spain.

Involvement in palm oilWeleda has once again been

elected to the Executive Board of the Forum for Sus tainable

Palm Oil (FONAP) and now holds the chair. Weleda is also chair

of the Derivatives working group which has full traceability

in the supply chain as its aim. www.forumpalmoel.org

Rich diversity

The medicinal plant garden in Schwäbisch Gmünd

was established in 1959. More than 1,000 differ-

ent species of plant grow on 23 hectares and

120 plants are used freshly picked in tinctures for our

pharmaceuticals and natural and organic cos metics. The

4 kilometres of hedges are home to around 50 differ-

ent types of bird, more than 30 species of wild bee and many other animals. Ponds provide a habit for 3 newt

species, river and painter’s mussels, European cray-

fishand native fish, includ-ing the rare pond loach.

Preservation of seedsAs part of our commitment

to biodiversity,

we support the Hortus Officinarum association in the biodynamic cultiva-tion and propagation of medicinal plants. Hortus has been nurturing seed cultures of aromatic and medicinal plants at Weleda’s medicinal plant garden in Switzerland, the Bruderholzhof, since 2010. Backed by the Swiss Federal Office for Agriculture, the aim is to regenerate the seeds of medi-cinal plant species that are stored in the Swiss gene bank. To date, this has been success-ful for 20 spe-cies, and seeds could be harvested from four species in 2017, of which cen taury was one.

81 %is the organic share of

plant raw materials

30 %of the organic share will be cultivated

in accordance with biodynamic guidelines over the next few years.

Controlled organic and biody-namic cultivation are all about the

responsible production of natural raw materials, without chemicals or

genetic modification.

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A R E A O F A C T I O NE C O L O G I C A L F A R M I N G A N D B I O D I V E R S I T Y

Respectful supply chain3Weleda products are based on thousands of substances from nature. Many natural raw materials and precious medicinal plants are sourced from suppliers all over the globe, and we work with more than 50 cultivation partners in organic farming and certified wild collec-tion worldwide. We support them as they make the changeover from conventional to organic cultivation methods as well as in measures for the protection of biodiversity.

Around 50 cultivation projects and partnerships with social and/or environmental promotion

Management programme according to Union for Ethical BioTrade (UEBT) standards (www.ethicalbiotrade.org) along the entire supply chain of natural raw materials:

global standard on social and environmental aspects as well as the protection and the sustainable use of biodiversity

Greatest possible transparency and traceability within supply chains: regular on-site audits


Supply chain management system based on the Union for Ethical BioTrade (UEBT):

Adopting a standard questionnaire and assessment tool

Auditing four suppliers

Selection of tools and amendment of questionnaire enabled introduction in 2018; audited two supply chains, two further audits were not possible owing to the political situation

Evaluation of certification of our UEBT management system

Introduction of a standard question-naire and assessment tool

Palm oil:

Membership of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)

Continuing to participate actively in FONAP (Forum for Sustainable Palm Oil)

Ongoing conversion to certified quality in order to achieve the 100 per cent target

Conducting an additional evaluation of alternative raw materials as a replace-ment for derivatives

Member of the RSPO since 2017

Elected as chair of Executive Board and continued to serve as chair of the Derivatives working group in FONAP

The pharmaceuticals sector remains problematic as there are no certified goods being offered on the market.

Continuation of targets

Providing annual support for two social projects

Renovation of a village school in Romania

Funded sanitary facilities and equip-ment of a school in Madagascar


Introduction of a concept on social and environmental criteria for all Weleda suppliers

Indirect procurement: successful process implementation

Packaging and contract manufac-turers: no implementation

Social and environmental criteria: test phase and implementation of a process to evaluate suppliers in the area of packaging and contract manufacturers


Pilot project to ascertain true cost in the supply chain

New targets

It is great to see that we are now able to source plant

oils from biodynamic cultivation in large volumes.

Markus Weidner, Strategic buyer at Weleda Germany


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A R E A O F A C T I O NR E S P E C T F U L S U P P LY C H A I N

IN BRIEF

Awards

CSR Award of the German Federal Government

We received the special award for Responsible Supply Chain

Management at the start of 2017. The jury was impressed by

Weleda’s entire supply chain for natural raw materials being

guided by the standard of the Union for Ethical Biotrade

(UEBT).

Responsible Business Award

In 2017, Jayn Sterland from Weleda UK accepted this award in the Supplier Engagement of

the Year category. The jury said their decision was in recogni-

tion of the supply chain manage-ment structure and the commit-

ment to sustainable raw material procurement. The accolade is

bestowed by the Ethical Corpo-ration in the UK.

Sustainable in Export Award

Weleda New Zealand was crowned as Most Sustainable in

Export by ExportNZ ASB Awards Hawke’s Bay. The company

impressed with its biodynamic medicinal plant garden, including

goats and cows, as well as its many economic, environmental

and social initiatives.

It was only supposed to be a short holiday back home: Ibrahim Abouleish had studied chemistry in Austria and was still living there with his family. However, when the dedicated anthroposophist saw how the agricultural

industry was harming the environment in Egypt, he decided to return and found the Sekem enterprise. Around 40 years ago, he started biodynamic cultivation in the desert. “I was speechless when I saw everything this includes today,” says Markus Weidner, buyer for vegetable oils: several farms, a school for employee children and a university in Cairo. Products are supplied by 250 contract farmers in the country. They are also involved in the first major cooperation between Weleda and Sekem: in 2017, Weleda signed a preliminary agreement with Helmy Abouleish, son of the company founder and the current boss, for the supply of 58 tonnes per year of biodynamically cultivated cold-pressed jojoba oil from the desert. “In the Bahariya oasis around El-Bawiti, a day’s drive from Cairo, the first young plants are growing on eight hectares of sandy soil. The intention is to expand this to 50 hectares, with the first harvest in three years,” explains Markus Weidner. “Until then, we will already be procuring around ten tonnes from a number of Sekem contract farmers.” This cooperation has initially been agreed for ten years and secures the investment of Sekem as well as uncou-pling the farmers’ income from the fluctuating world market price. For Weleda, the nutrient-rich oil of the jojoba shrub is used as the basis of many creams and body lotions. “Up to now, the majority of our oil of Demeter quality has come from the Argentinian desert,” says Markus, “but now we will have two major sources of supply if a harvest were ever to fail.” Especially sustainable: the long-term supplier in Argentina is acting as an advisor and passing on their unique jojoba expertise to Sekem.

Further information on Sekem is available at www.sekem.com

Markus Weidner (36) has been in International Strategic Sourcing at Weleda in Schwäbisch Gmünd since 2014. The agronomist with a major in sustainable resource man-agement previous-ly worked in an or-ganic certification body for African smallholders.

Creating a future to stop rural depopulationThe 35 children run towards their school in eager anticipation. In time for the start of winter, the building was fitted with a new roof and a porch to protect the entrance steps from snow, ice and rain.

The winters are long and cold in the Western Romanian Carpathians. We funded the renovation of this small school in 2017 as a further step towards securing the future of the Apuseni mountain region. Arnica blossoms have been collected in the heart of these mountains for more than 30 years. To preserve this precious treasure of nature, Weleda has been supporting a “protection through care” project. Farmers and collectors receive ongoing training and have formed local cooperatives. Drying facilities have also been built to make it much easier to dry out the blossoms. The project offers incentives for the extensive cultivation of species-rich arnica meadows and safeguards the future livelihood of this mountain population. The best news is that rural depopulation has already slowed significantly.

When asked what they most wished for, the school-children responded: “A room for our PE lessons!”

Before and after: a new roof for the school building, a new insulated façade and totally new sanitary facilities.

Harvest volume 2017: thirty tonnes of fresh arnica blossoms – generates five tonnes of dried

flowers from which oil is extracted for use in arnica massage oil and stretch mark massage oil.

20 21



Sustainable sites, production and logistics4We also set high standards with regard to the responsible use of environmental resources in our own company. Our aim is to increase the recovery and recycling rates so that a closed system is created. Through our environmental management, we are continually improving environmental protection and biodiversity. The consolidated environmental data can be found on pages 78 to 80.

Reuse of waste ratio of over 98 per cent (including thermal recovery)

Recycling and composting ratio of 61 per cent (excluding thermal recovery)

Electricity for production in own buildings 1 is 100 per cent from renewable sources.


Definition of targets for resource use and intensities:

Energy use and emissions

Water and waste water

Other resources and waste

Specific targets determined in drawing up the Sustainability Programme

Implementation of targets

Climate impact of the main sites in Switzerland and Germany

Climate impact assessment carried out for both sites



Advancement of site mobility

New targets

1 Sites in France, Germany and Switzerland

I am impressed by how seriously

Weleda takes sustainability and

how anthroposo phic principles are

followed in day-to-day activities.

Rainer Saner, Interior Designer at Doppler und Saner GmbH in Switzerland


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A R E A O F A C T I O NS U S TA I N A B L E S I T E S , P R O D U C T I O N A N D L O G I S T I C S

Progress in intensities

How efficiently companies make use of natural resources is reflected in the environmental key figures. All intensities relate to the largest manufacturing countries of France, Germany and Switzerland.There was this moment where one last thing was

fundamentally changed. “Can it be that Weleda em-ployees are walking around on a synthetic floor?”

asked a member of staff. Interior designer Rainer Saner had selected carpet tiles for the new build that were “manu-factured from recycled fishing nets and fully certified” – he had been impressed. “But essentially, they were still made from oil (petroleum) and this material cannot be returned to the system,” comments Rainer, who says he learned a valu-able lesson from this to “always look very carefully at seals and certifications”. That the focus is on people at Weleda was reflected in the fact that around 50 employees helped design “their” new workplace. “We integrated four meeting rooms as peninsulas on two of the floors so that the new open plan offices are not too loud,” Rainer explains, “this softens the acoustics.” And it adds a pop of colour: the glass-walled rooms feature pastel tones of blue, pink, yellow and orange on the inside, but are otherwise dominated by light beech and birch plywood, white varnished walls and off-white furniture, which employees helped choose. “Everything was to be as light as possible,” he recalls. Through the giant window panes, daylight dictates when the lights come on with their warm-toned LEDs. Geothermal probes and heat pumps provide heat, or cool the office in summer. The entire concept corresponds to the high Swiss stand-ards for energy efficiency and value preservation, Minergie-P and Minergie-ECO. The plant nursery that had to make way for the new build was integrated in the building while the show garden was retained. Nature appears to continue with-in the offices themselves because employees walk on green linoleum that has a cork layer for sound absorption. This will later decompose 100 per cent.

Further information on interior designers Doppler und Saner GmbH is available at www.dopplerundsaner.ch

Rainer Saner (46) runs the interior

design studio Dop-pler und Saner

GmbH in Zwingen near Basel, Swit-

zerland, together with his business

partner, Patrik Doppler. They were

instrumental in designing our new

offices at Arles-heim, which were

ready for their new occupants at the start of 2018.

To earn Minergie-P status, the specifications for the building shell must be at least 30 per cent better than required by Swiss law.

Packaging intensityin grams per kilogram of finished product

Energy intensityin kilowatt-hours per kilogram of product content

Water intensityin litres per kilogram of product content

Waste intensityin kilograms per tonne of finished product

Packaging intensity improved by 3.8 per cent. This was above all ow-ing to the fact that new natural and organic cosmetics in lightweight plastic packaging came on the market while products in heavy glass bottles were at the same time re-moved from our range. The recycled share in natural and organic cosmet-ics also improved from 43 per cent to 46 per cent, largely owing to the increase in the recycled proportion of green glass bottles (see page 10).

This key figure shows the weight of packaging in grams per kilogram of finished product, relating to the manufacturing volumes and consump-tion in France, Germany and Switzerland.

362376

355

201720162015

4.14.3

3.8

201720162015

11.310.810.5

201720162015

118115

2015 2016

108

2017

Water intensity increased by 2.6 per cent in 2017 while total water con-sumption was up 35 per cent. The reasons: at the site in France, more water was needed overall for office air conditioning and cooling in pro-duction. Concurrently, the produc-tion volumes increased in the manu-facturing countries (+7 per cent). Although the intensity has now risen slightly, there has been a clear downward trend in intensity values of between 13 per cent and 16 per cent since 2011.

This key figure shows the amount of water consumed from the public water supply in litres per kilogram of product content manufactured at the production sites in France, Germany and Switzerland.

Waste intensity improved by 8.3 per cent and amounted to 108.3 grams of waste per kilogram of manufac-tured finished product in 2017. This is a reduction in residual material of 10 grams per kilogram of product. Worldwide, the intensity declined by 2 per cent, while the total amount of waste across all regional compa-nies fell by 26 tonnes. This is a great success for Weleda because it went in tandem with an increase of 7 per cent in the production volume and of 9 per cent in bulk goods produced.

This key figure shows the amount of waste that was generated per tonne of finished product manufactured at the German, French and Swiss production sites.

In 2017, we used 3 per cent more energy, once again on account of the increased production quantities. By contrast, the intensity declined by 4.5 per cent. Plant utilisation was so high due to increased production that efficiency improved. In France, Germany and Switzerland, natural and organic cosmetics as well as me-dicinal products are manufactured using only energy from renewable sources.

This key figure shows the amount of energy consumed in kilowatt-hours per kilogram of product content manufactured at the German, French and Swiss production sites.

FACTS

Eco-building ArlesheimAddition to the Company’s site in Switzer-

land: a building created in accordance with the specifications of Minergie-P and

Minergie-ECO, offering employees a great level of comfort. It includes offices

and workspaces for medicinal plant cultivation.

Why is this new building so special? Along the entire lifecycle, the detrimental

effects on health and the environment are being reduced to a minimum with mate-

rials such as the window and flooring systems all being recyclable.

We used recycled concrete, which is a resource-efficient construction mate-

rial that enables a circular economy. The building itself is 80 per cent certi-

fied Swiss wood, while the exterior is clad in regional FSC wood.

Minergie-P stands for maximum energy efficiency. Our energy is sourced 100 per cent from non-fossil fuels. A proportion

is generated via the photovoltaic system on the roof of the building. Hot water,

heating and air conditioning are all regulat-ed by geothermal energy. The end

result is a lowest energy building certi-fied in accordance with Minergie-P.

24 25



Meaningful and effective work5Weleda is a business enterprise and at the same time a place of human development based on common tasks. In our experience, people want their work to be meaningful. It is also our conviction that everyone wishes to continue to progress throughout their life. Meaningful and effective work, training and individual development opportunities all have a mutually reinforcing effect.

Promotion of Weleda culture and identity (including work seminars, “Identity and core values” curriculum, identity workshop) as well as personal and profes-sional development (Weleda Academy for Employee Development)

Promotion of a favourable work-life balance, health and diversity 1

Commitment from and for employees: Bike-to-Weleda, healthy activities, staff parties, employee garden

Weleda offers outstanding training with a comprehensive curriculum.


1 Sites in Germany and Switzerland

Support programmes for employees Changes to the maternity / paternity regulations in Switzerland:

Introduction of mother-child time

Paid maternity leave beginning six weeks before birth

Ensuring and enhancing the quality of the programmes

“Diversity Wins! Weleda creates pros-pects for people who have experienced displacement” programme

Offer of internships and entry qualifications, mentoring programme, intercultural project choir, intercul-tural gardening project in Germany

Ensuring the quality of the pro-gramme, expanding Diversity Wins! to Switzerland

Establishing an associative think tank of ethically oriented companies

First associative workshop in May 2017, opening of the Weleda Academy for Employee Development to exter-nal persons

Further meetings planned, asso-ciative work on future-oriented questions; associative shadowing


Pilot project for biography days in Germany to boost individual resilience and independence

Compact international “Identity and core values” curriculum

Insights Weleda international media library: pilot film with subtitles in nine languages for work seminars worldwide

New targets

Becoming a Weleda mentor made me

realise how much I take for granted, including

the fact that my whole family is nearby.

Anika Zimny, who works in the packing of natural and organic cosmetics

at Weleda Germany


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A R E A O F A C T I O NM E A N I N G F U L A N D E F F E C T I V E W O R K

Creating value by being valued

Respectful conduct towards one another has a significant impact on personal satisfaction and on how we are able to work together – in both professional and private life. How can we learn to be open and candid with each other? In an interview, Antonia Jeismann, Training Manager at Weleda, explains how internal workshops on the topic of appreciative communication can help.

Making friends in the vegetable field

Voluntary, environmental, social. These three words describe the WELED’Agit initiative, which translates as “Weleda takes action”, at the Huningue site in France. Employees spend one working day each year doing something for others or the environment.

Starting from scratch in a totally new place – Anika Zimny knows how that feels. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, she and her parents moved from near East Berlin to Schorndorf in Baden-Württemberg. The family lived in a sports hall

for months before they were able to find a flat. “I was six years old at the time,” she recalls, “and aside from the language, everything was different. I had to make new friends and find my way in a new school, but my father luckily already had a job.” She therefore did not need to think twice when asked last year if she would become a mentor: for 19-year-old Amira 1 from Syria who was starting a three-week internship at Weleda. The company has been offering this career guidance opportunity to refugees since 2015 as part of its Diversity Wins! programme. 2 While she was looking forward to it, there were also a few nerves: what would it be like, with the language, with the cultural differences? “Amira could already speak German,” says Anika, “and if we struggled with a term, my colleague from Lebanon was more than happy to translate into Arabic.” There was quite a lot of special-ist terminology to get her head around, as Anika works in the packaging of natural and organic cosmetics, bottling oils and bath products. She explained the work on the various machines to Amira and took her to the raw materials warehouse. She could offer reassurance that men and women had separate changing rooms. They were also able to find a way for Amira to keep on her headscarf, which she wears for religious reasons. Instead of the lab coat and cap that have to be worn for hygiene and workplace safety, Amira wore a full-body overall like the colleagues in phar maceutical production, which had enough space in the hood for a headscarf. There is one thing Anika Zimny would do differently: she loves bringing in home-baked goodies for her colleagues and she would leave the dash of alcohol out of the Black Forest cupcakes next time. Amira had not been able to try one because of this addition.

Further information is available at www.wir-zusammen.de/patenschaften/weleda

Anika Zimny (33) (left) works in

the production area at Schwäbisch

Gmünd. The bakery sales assistant

joined Weleda Ger-many in 2010,

thus venturing into totally new pro-

fessional territory. As a mentor, she

shares her experi-ence of “still being

allowed to learn everything at your

own pace”.

1 Name has been changed

2 Full name of programme: Diversity wins! Weleda creates prospects for people who have experienced displacement

IN BRIEF

Mindfulness coachingFor eight weeks, staff at

Weleda Australia had the chance to take part in internal training

for stress reduction. The training sessions always took place one

evening each week and were run by a mindfulness coach. This

came about because employees and the management expressed

the wish for more clarity and focus in a world that is increasingly

perceived as restless. The practi-cal exercises have become a

part of everyday working life: many employees now consciously

take the time to meditate for ten minutes every day. Group

meetings also begin in this way.

When I have too

many thoughts racing round in my mind,

these exer cises really help. They help me

return to a place of calm and clarity.

Ben Clarke, Warehouse Manager at

Weleda Australia

A field of celery as far as the eye can see. Between the rows of young seedlings, people are weeding. They are employees of the Alsace-based company ICARE. Here the focus is not on the plants but the people. Peo-ple who have been unemployed for a long time owing to all manner of reasons. ICARE provides them with paid employment in a community that currently includes around 100 individuals. In this way, they not only learn how to grow vegetables but also receive recognition and help in finding permanent employment. The fact that 500 paying customers have signed up for these organic vegetable boxes leaves them in no doubt that their work is meaningful. In June 2017, the ICARE employees were joined by staff from Weleda France as they raked the weeds. At the end of a hot day working in the celery, beans and carrots, with many conversa-tions, the encounter between ICARE and Weleda was rounded off with the preparation together of salad and vegetable soup.

Why should we learn to communicate

in a more appreciative way?

ANTONIA JEISMANN: Anger often crops up following misunderstandings and conflict which can cost us valuable energy. The way we speak and listen is strongly linked to our inner attitude towards ourselves, others and our environment. Empathy and awareness are important skills for appre-ciative cooperation.

How can appreciative communi-

cation help us improve working

relationships?

ANTONIA JEISMANN: Communicating apprecia-tively means taking note of your own feel-ings and needs, while at the same time not losing sight of the interests of the other

person. The combination of clear language with an appreciative attitude is important for resolving matters of conflicts together.

What is the aim of these workshops?

ANTONIA JEISMANN: In the workshop, employees learn to distinguish between observation and interpretation as well as how to clearly formulate their own needs and concerns. A central aspect is also being able to take responsibility for oneself and recognising that there are always many different pos-sible courses of action, in line with the motto: I could get annoyed right now, but I don’t have to.

16 workshops on appre ciative communi-

cation have already taken place with 172 par-

ticipants in Germany and Switzerland.

WELED’Agit initiative in France: Weleda’s staff support ICARE employ-ees in returning to the job market.

28 29



Cultural and social development and relationships6Preserving biodiversity is not least a social obligation. Keeping nature intact is the very foundation of all our lives. For Weleda it is also the foundation of pharmaceuticals and natural and organic cosmetics. For this reason, we think it is important to support environ-mental education initiatives and firmly enshrine the conservation of nature in cultural heritage. We are making a contribution to this with our publications Werde magazine and the Weleda Nachrichten newsletter.

Commitment to anthroposophic medicine

Source of inspiration: Weleda’s medicinal plant gardens, Weleda events, Weleda publications

“Diversity wins! Weleda creates prospects for people who have experienced displacement” 1 programme


Involvement of stakeholders (dialogue partners)

Conducted numerous stakeholder dialogues 1

Continue with the target

Make sustainability achievements visible to the outside world

Won the CSR Award of the German Federal Government and the Respon-sible Business Award; medicinal plant garden selected as project for UN Decade on Biodiversity and Weleda named a Green Brand Germany

Potentially submit additional applications

Reconcile commitments with the UN Sustainable Development Goals

See page 83 Regular reviews

Revise and refine the sustainability reporting in alignment with the specific objectives for the next several years

Changed structure of report Further improve the level of reporting

Define new sustainability targets Sustainability Programme 2018 to 2022

Implementation, control and further development


Publication of Werde magazine in the UK

New targets


It is important for Weleda that we are seen as

people first who need to be looked after and then as

employees. This is very special.

Raisia Martinez, Management Assistant at Weleda North America


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A R E A O F A C T I O NC U LT U R A L A N D S O C I A L D E V E L O P M E N T A N D R E L AT I O N S H I P S

When speaking to Raisia Martinez, even over Skype, you notice a slight sideward head movement adding emphasis to her words. This is something she might well have picked up from her Indian grand mother

who worked on a farm in British Guyana, now Guyana. “She was neither able to read nor write but was always there for everyone,” shares Raisia, who also cares about helping others and visited Alzheimer’s sufferers while at univer-sity. On completing her bachelor’s degree in criminal law, she worked in the supe-rior court probation and as a child support enforcement specialist. “This never seemed quite the right fit for me. I love doing yoga and meditation.” She gave notice and moved to New York where she applied to join Weleda. “I know of no other company in which people care about each other to such an extent,” comments Raisia. She was very excited last year on getting involved in the project to spread joy at Christmas. The chosen beneficiary was Friends of Karen, a charity that supports through donations around 100 families caring for a child suffering from cancer – with voluntary helpers so that the family can have more precious hours together; financially if they are struggling to pay the rent after paying all the medical bills; with Christmas presents (for siblings, too), for which there might be neither time nor money. “I sent an email around and everyone donated,” reports Raisia, “and Weleda then matched that sum.” More than USD 600 was raised and benefitted five families – the wish lists not only included toys, but also coats and heat pillows. One child simply asked for a Christmas card to give to his mother.

Further information on Weleda North America is available at www.weleda.com

Raisia Martinez (29) has been a management assis-tant at Weleda North America in New York since 2016. In 2017, she organised a fund-raising campaign to help families caring for a child with cancer: “They were incred-ibly grateful for the time they could spend to-gether because of our efforts.”

IN BRIEF

Working for anthroposophic medicine

Weleda took part in the World Congress Integrative Medicine & Health in Berlin.

Executive Board member Dr Aldo Ammendola gave a talk on the

anthroposophic medical approach to the treatment of insomnia,

other stress-related complaints and ADHD.

Alnatura Experience GardenTogether with the company

Lebensbaum, Weleda is creating a herb and sensory garden in

Darmstadt at the new headquar-ters of Alnatura which operates

organic supermarkets in Germany and Switzerland. The garden is

expected to open in 2019, allow-ing visitors to explore the varied

plant world of the two suppliers. Further information is available at

https://www.alnatura.de/en/ueber-uns/ alnatura-campus

A thousand billboards …… featuring the slogan “Viel-

falt wertschätzen. Nachhaltig handeln” (Value diversity.

Act sustainably) were displayed on railway stations through-

out North-Rhine Westphalia in Oc tober 2017. In this way,

Weleda and One World Net NRW, an umbrella organisation

of development associations, demon strated their commit-

ment to preserving the diversity of nature and the fair treat-

ment of suppliers.

Discover the world as a naturalist

Children and teenagers are increasingly afraid of contact with nature – this was a finding of the Jugendreport Natur 2016 report initiated by independent experts.

Placing a small slimy snail on their hand: a brave step for many a child.

When it senses danger, a snail withdraws into its shell, produces slime and pushes so much air out that lots of little bubbles form. Children learn how this works and recreate it themselves with a straw and water.

Observe and be amazed: there are even some sheep

on our site.

Damp is how snails like it best. Children can experience on their own skin what this feels like with the fine spray from a water atomizer.

With our free environmental education programme Weleda’s Nature Workshop, we aim to introduce children to the plants and animals they can find in their own natural biosphere. This provision is above all aimed at nurseries and primary schools. On exciting safaris across the land around our medicinal plant garden in Schwäbisch Gmünd, the young naturalists have fun discovering their surroundings.

33



Management and finance7A company is commercially successful when customers truly value its service and enable it to strengthen its financial resilience as a result. We have achieved a great deal and have set ourselves new targets to establish Weleda as a strong brand worldwide in the long term.

Weleda’s value added statement

Financial resilience through corresponding equity ratio and liquidity

Ensuring future viability through investment in the development of the company

Management systems on sustainability:

– NATRUE certification (certification for natural and organic cosmetics)

– Member of the Union for Ethical BioTrade (UEBT) and application of its standard to the entire supply chain of natural raw materials

– ISO 14001 international standard on environmental management and the EU Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) 1

GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice): guidelines for quality assurance of production processes and environment in production

Multiple awards received: products and the company



Implementing international pharma-ceuticals product range

Defining the strategy for the pharma-ceuticals product range for Germany and Switzerland

Developed strategy for the interna-tional pharmaceuticals product range

Pharmaceuticals range for Germany and Switzerland determined in con-sultation with doctors

Implementing both points

Further increasing the equity ratio to improve the resilience and independ-ence of the company

Equity ratio at 46.7 per cent Continuing with the target

Reviewing the sustainability of investments in current pension funds

Examined and developed a concept to improve the investment guidelines of existing pension funds regarding their sustainability

Defining criteria for investment as well as improving sustainability of investments in current pension funds

Targets 2018Targets set for 2017 Achievements 2017We use Excel

tables but are also trans lators: we

make figures compre-hensible and

help take decisions.

Patricia Büeler, Controller at Weleda Switzerland


34

A R E A O F A C T I O NM A N A G E M E N T A N D F I N A N C E

Patricia Büeler sometimes looks at the world from above at the weekend. Her partner is a fully licenced pilot and they fly high above the Jura

Mountains in Switzerland in a Cessna aircraft over meadows, ridges and villages. There is much to see from afar and this is something she also loves about her job: “Controlling gives me a bird’s eye view of things as well, and then I dive down to immerse myself into everyday work.” A colleague is responsible for Aus-tria, Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland plus South America, while she deals with the “rest of the world”, which means around 20 Weleda subsidiaries in total. Perfect for someone who describes herself as “very inquisitive”. She not only looks at whether sales tar-gets are being met for both natural and organic cosmetics and medicinal products but also why they were perhaps even exceeded, as was the case in Russia in 2017. Or conversely, identifies where sus-tained investment might be required. Patricia explains: “By preparing the figures, we help our colleagues become better at identifying opportunities and risks in the market.” The Swiss native also likes to act as the middle person in her leisure time while herself keeping an overview: she only works 90 per cent to enable her to also volunteer on the school council for the municipality of Aesch, where she lives, repre-senting the interests of both pupils and parents to the schools. “The first thing I did was introduce rules of procedure and ensured that everyone is always informed about every thing,” she explains. “This made us more efficient.” Not every thing is sociopolitical, though. Patricia helped organise a music festival a few years ago, for example. There are so many different exciting sides to life.

Patricia Büeler (28) has worked in

the Finance and Controlling depart-

ment at Weleda in Arlesheim since

2015. She be-lieves neither age nor gender should

influence recruit-ment and that the

best person for the job should be selected based on

merit alone.

Patricia Büeler volunteers on the school council of a municipality in the Canton of Basel-Landschaft.

Value added statement

We will secure our Company’s future viability by means of prudent, ethical business practices.

By conducting our business in a responsible way, we improve Weleda’s ability to manage risk – from behav-iour in the market, through environmentally relevant aspects, to relationships with employees and exchanges with all other key interest groups and stakeholders. This generates sustainable added value which can be distributed to employees (income), capital providers (dividends, interest) and charitable organisations (dona-tions), and the public (taxes).

The value added statement (inside cover page) illus-trates how the economic activities of our Company gen-erate value for society: unlike the income statement, which is based on the viewpoint of the owners, the value added statement sets out the contribution made by the Weleda Group to private and public income. The value added statement shows the expenditure with which Weleda achieved its Company performance and how the added value generated was distributed.

In the 2017 financial year, business performance in-creased due to a growth in received revenues of EUR 10.5 million to EUR 403.5 million. After deduction of inputs, the added value of the Weleda Group amounted to EUR 169.1 million. Added value per Weleda Group employee amounted to EUR 82,222 per full-time em-ployee and was thus 0.7 per cent higher than in the previous year.

A total of EUR 2.5 million was spent on donations and similar contributions in 2017, with EUR 2.1 million of this amount going to the School of Spiritual Science in Dornach and to other different anthroposophic insti-tutions.

The added value generated was sufficient to cover the income of our employees. Our employees are co-entrepre-neurs who are involved in the performance process. Supporting and promoting a sense of personal responsi-bility and the way that each individual conceives of them-selves is important to the Company.

Public authorities received EUR 4.6 million of the created added value in the form of taxes. A further EUR 1.3 mil-lion was attributable to interest to lenders.

Pursuant to the proposal of the Board of Directors, a dividend of 7 per cent will be distributed to sharehold-ers for 2017.

Weleda in the markets

The planned reduction in our dependence on the D – A – CH region of Germany, Austria and Switzerland is making progress. In natural and organic cosmetics we generated more than 80 per cent of our growth outside the German-speaking countries. The phar-maceuticals picture is similar: the current growth region is South America. Below is an overview of the developments in the individual countries and particular highlights.

South America and Southern Europe

region

Brazil

The first year of implementing the invest-ment plan of our growth project was suc-cessful. The sales trend in OTC pharmaceu-ticals is very good. In September, the Board of Directors and Executive Board held a meeting in Brazil which enabled them to get to know the enthusiastic team in São Paulo.

Chile and Argentina

Weleda Argentina continues to achieve double-digit growth. In Chile, construction has started on the new building which will expand the compounding pharmacy.

Italy

A major first step has been taken in the pharmaceuticals registration project, with 120 pharmaceuticals dossiers submitted to the authorities. The validation process is ongoing. There has been a change at management level: Stefano Riva has been succeeded by Edoardo Ruffinengo.

Spain

The launched growth strategy is making good progress. Concentrating the market-ing and sales activities on pharmacies has confirmed that this sales channel harbours the greatest potential. Brand awareness has been significantly enhanced by means of a continuous ad campaign for the pome-granate range. There has also been an in-crease in the market share of OTC pharma-ceuticals.

North America and Western Europe region

USA

After many years of stagnation in the market, the new growth strategy has started to take effect. It is based on three pillars: the intensive development of the organic retailing sales channel, the genera-tion of profitable growth through e-com-merce (www.weleda.com) and the prudent expansion into new sales channels.

UK

The Weleda Advisor Network was founded in 2013. Around 500 ambassadors were trained to promote and sell Weleda cosmet-ics and OTC pharmaceuticals at events or in their naturopathy practice. Every am-bassador is carefully selected. Many have a background in holistic care. In 2017, the Advisor Network reached the milestone of EUR 1 million in sales. Our aim is to recruit

Spain: An ongoing ad campaign for the pomegranate range has boosted brand awareness, which has a positive spillover effect on other product lines.

UK: Weleda Advisor Network. Around 500 ambassadors for Weleda, enthusiastic men and women who have found paid and meaningful work with Weleda.

37



A new portfolio strategy for Weleda natural and organic cosmetics

An Driessens has been responsible for global marketing at Weleda since June 2017. In our conversation, she talked about how she intends to boost awareness of the Weleda brand worldwide and her plans to position the product portfolio accordingly.

Why do we need a new portfolio

strategy?

AN DRIESSENS: The natural and organic cosmetics market is constantly growing. Weleda is growing as well, but not as quickly. We need a clear strategy up to 2022 that will enable us to grow at that pace.

What measures are you

considering?

AN DRIESSENS: We have formulated our “natural beauty” vision and identified the greatest growth prospects on which the organisation will focus, but equally importantly, we compiled a list of things we should not be doing anymore. This process was carried out together with the markets and research and develop-ment. We were very quickly able to come up with a shared vision of our potential opportunities.

This alone will surely not

be enough?

AN DRIESSENS: Certainly not. We realised that growth potential is higher in some categories than others. So, we asked ourselves – where do we want to invest? Where should we call it a day? Our port-folio is too complex. We need to con-centrate our efforts and decide where to stay in the game and where not.

Is that a particular challenge

for Weleda?

AN DRIESSENS: It is not easy to realise, because our competitors are generally not operating in as many countries as Weleda. This means they can focus on one or just a few select markets. In all countries, it is more important than ever before that we specifically focus our range on the customers there.

What does that mean exactly?

AN DRIESSENS: There are a few countries, such as France, Germany and Switzer-land, where the Weleda brand is already extremely well known, but this is not the case in most other countries. There, consumers are not so aware of why they should be buying a Weleda product. We have to give them a reason by ensuring our origins, our story and our quality are clearly communicated. This has to be made truly relevant for them.

What are your plans to bring

this about?

AN DRIESSENS: The anthroposophically inspired values on which we are based is what makes us unique. These should always be conveyed in such a way as to be clear to all. With the right stories and a smart branding campaign, we can raise awareness. We have a real mission at our core, whereas others try to find a philosophy and make it fit. This is our opportunity. People need to know why they are buying Weleda. We are not so presumptuous as to think that this will work with everyone, but for many it can – and I see this is a truly great opportunity.

and train Weleda ambassadors in every postcode area of the UK by 2022, which means 2,800 in total.

France

On the French market, double-digit growth has once again been realised in natural and organic cosmetics. The pharmaceuticals business remained stable in our largest market for medicines. In November 2017, Weleda put on a unique show online. The dancer Isabelle Pollet Villard was filmed during a performance in the Éléphant Pan-ame, a former Parisian mansion house, against a background of flowers and in front of an audience of specially invited journal-ists and influencers. The video has been seen by three million people on social media.

Further information is available at www.youtube.com/watch?v=r68hXxha520

Benelux

Weleda Benelux proved stable. In Belgium, the switchover to selling in pharmacies was completed successfully: 370 pharma-cies were able to offset the sales decline on the mass market. Market shares were gained in the Netherlands and brand aware-ness raised, not least on account of vari-ous cooperations.

Asia / Pacific region

Overall, Weleda was able to post year- on-year growth in the double-digit range for this region. Australia was one of the key growth drivers. To tap future growth potential, we are currently in the process of moving to larger premises there. In Japan, the development of our own Natural Care Studios (NCS) was a great success. There are now seven Weleda Natural Care Studios in the country, three of which offer face and body treatments.

Northern and Central Eastern Europe (NCEE)

For the fourth consecutive year, double- digit and profitable growth was achieved

in this region. All subsidiaries as well as most of the 19 export markets in the region contributed to this trend with sales ex-pansion and successful marketing meas-ures, above all digital ones. The opening of the new branch in Kiev, Ukraine, was also a success and marks a strategic step for the future orientation of the region.

D – A – CH region:

Germany, Austria, Switzerland

Sales improved slightly in the fiercely competitive market of the D – A – CH region. Pharmaceuticals suffered some decline but natural and organic cosmetics were up by 1.4 per cent (in the largest market of Germany: 2.1 per cent). A particular high-light was the launch of the Global Garden campaign in the visitor’s centre in Schwä-bisch Gmünd (see box). Lovely award: Weleda is now one of the 2017/ 2018 Green Brands in Germany. At the ceremony in Frankfurt, we once again received recogni-tion for our environmentally friendly and sustainable practices and can now officially call ourselves a “green brand”.

USA: Prominent displays at Ridgewoods and Wholefoods. The ramped-up marketing efforts are beginning to bear fruit.

Eleven countries and once around the worldAustralian blogger Lauren Doolan from Melbourne was crowned the winner when in autumn last year Weleda invited users from all around the globe on a Weleda world trip: the Global Garden Tour. This competition was special because it was not the company but the users worldwide who selected the 16 contenders from 16 countries for the final to win the big trip. The hunt was on for individuals who were interested in Weleda, nature and sustainability as well as having the skills to present topics interestingly and vividly (www.weledaglobalgarden.com). The journey is not over yet for the winner Lauren Doolan: in March 2018, she headed off from Australia to discover the Weleda world.

We have a real mission

at our core, whereas others try to find a philosophy

and make it fit. This is our opportunity.

38 39



Third-party sales per company

Structure of third-party sales per company

Employees(Full-time employees)

Currency in 1,000

2017 Change from previous

year in local currency

Pharma-ceuticals

Natural and organic

cosmetics

2017 2016

Switzerland CHF 36,862 – 0.5 % 36 % 64 % 326 313Weleda AG, Arlesheim EUR 33,162

Germany EUR 171,700 + 1.2 % 20 % 80 % 762 769Weleda AG, Schwäbisch Gmünd

France EUR 90,734 + 5.4 % 41 % 59 % 370 371Weleda S. A., Huningue

Netherlands EUR 15,869 – 4.5 % 14 % 86 % 70 68Weleda Benelux SE, Zoetermeer

United Kingdom GBP 7,388 + 3.4 % 21 % 79 % 58 59Weleda UK Ltd., Ilkeston EUR 8,428

Italy EUR 10,730 – 2.8 % 38 % 62 % 41 40Weleda Italia S. r. l., Milan

Austria EUR 11,105 – 0.6 % 17 % 83 % 20 21Weleda Ges. m. b. H. & Co KG, Vienna

Sweden SEK 60,180 – 0.3 % 9 % 91 % 20 22Weleda AB, Stockholm EUR 6,245

Spain EUR 8,469 + 11.1 % 4 % 96 % 49 46Weleda S. A. U., Madrid

Czech Republic CZK 83,102 + 18.4 % 0 % 100 % 17 13Weleda spol. s. r. o., Prague EUR 3,159

Russia RUB 352,790 + 12.1 % 1 % 99 % 35 28Weleda East GmbH, Moscow EUR 5,362

Ukraine UAH 18,906 – 0 % 100 % 12 –Weleda Ukraine LLC, Kiev EUR 639

USA (North America) USD 14,860 + 4.5 % 5 % 95 % 29 27Weleda Inc., Irvington N. Y. EUR 13,163

Argentina ARS 52,627 + 25.6 % 49 % 51 % 45 44Weleda S. A. Argentina, Buenos Aires EUR 2,827

Brazil BRL 39,378 + 17.8 % 76 % 24 % 138 134Weleda do Brasil Ltda., São Paulo EUR 10,928

Chile CLP 2,142,334 – 5.2 % 43 % 57 % 41 39Weleda Chile SpA, Santiago de Chile EUR 2,956

New Zealand NZD 4,033 + 1.0 % 59 % 41 % 29 29Weleda (NZ) Ltd, Havelock North EUR 2,538

Australia AUD 4,254 + 21.6 % 15 % 85 % 15 14Weleda Australia Pty Ltd, Warriewood EUR 2,888

Total EUR 400,902 + 2.8 % 27 % 73 % 2,077 2,037

Development in the markets

Our total sales exceeded EUR 400 million for the first time in 2017. The distribution of growth rates shows how important internationalisation is. The movements in the markets balance each other out and thus ensure stable development.

Third-party sales of regional companies

AmericaArgentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Mexico, Peru, USA

EuropeAustria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom

AfricaEgypt, Morocco

AsiaChina, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates

AustraliaAustralia, New Zealand

USA+ 4.5 %

Brazil+ 17.8 %

Australia+ 21.6 %

United Kingdom+ 3.4 %

Netherlands– 4.5 %

Switzer-land

– 0.5 %

Italy– 2.8 %

Austria– 0.6 %

Czech Republic+ 18.4 %

Germany+ 1.2 %

Sweden– 0.3 %

Ukraine

New Zealand+ 1.0 %

Chile– 5.2 %

Spain+ 11.1 %

France+ 5.4 %

Russia+ 12.1 %

Argentina+ 25.6 %

Third-party sales of regional companiesThe percentages relate to the change in third-party sales of the respective Weleda com pany compared with the previous year (in local currency, page 41)

Regional companies Agencies

Weleda is present in the following countries:

Total

+2.8 %

40 41

M A N A G E M E N T A N D F I N A N C EW E L E D A M A R K E T S

M A N A G E M E N T A N D F I N A N C EW E L E D A M A R K E T S

General economic development in 2017 and outlook for 2018

As the Weleda Group is very closely linked with Weleda AG, this management report describes both the financial position of the Weleda Group and that of the individual company Weleda AG.

Business performanceFor the first time, the Weleda Group increased total sales to over EUR 400 million in 2017. The distribution of growth rates indicates the importance of internationalisation. For example, the pharmaceuticals business segment in Brazil achieved double-digit growth. Additional expenditures for infrastructure, market investments, and research and de-velopment led to a decrease in the operating result. But the net result improved significantly compared to 2016 mainly due to lower taxes. Further reduction in debt plus the generated profit led to a higher equity ratio, further improving the resilience of the Company. Pioneering deci-sions about the future are only possible on the solid basis which was established in the last five years. Some of the most important strategic decisions for the next years are a renewal of our infrastructure with the core element of a new production and logistic site in Germany, investments in research and development, further development of the pharmaceuticals strategy, the revision of the product-mix strategy for natural and organic cosmetics and the sustain-ability program 2018 – 2022.

EmployeesThe Weleda Group had an average of 2,057 full-time em-ployees in 2017 (previous year: 2,028). Weleda AG had an average of 1,084 full-time employees (previous year: 1,074).

Risk assessmentRisks are an integral part of business operations. A risk management system that enables the identification, anal-ysis, control and monitoring of significant risks in the cor-porate environment is therefore particularly important for Weleda. In order to identify risks in good time and determine the appropriate action, our management regularly assesses, at Group level and at the level of Weleda AG, any signifi-cant internal and external risks that may impact the entire corporate environment. The Board of Directors discusses and approves the results of the risk assessment and any measures every six months.

Development of salesThe net sales of the Weleda Group for the 2017 financial year amount to EUR 400.9 million (previous year: EUR 389.8 million). This corresponds to a growth rate of 2.8 per cent, or EUR 11.1 million, compared with the previous year (adjusted for exchange rate effects: 3.0 per cent, or EUR

cent (previous year: 6.1 per cent). The reduction in the operating result in comparison to 2016 was mainly due to planned market investments relating to international-isation (USA, Brazil, Ukraine and Korea), a general and planned increase in marketing expenses as well as costs associated with intensifying research and development activities. The operating result (EBIT) in the separate fi-nancial statements of Weleda AG decreased, compared to the previous year, by CHF 20.1 million to CHF – 0.4 million. Since the year under review, the investments stated in the individual financial statements of Weleda AG are am-ortised over five years, leading to an additional burden of CHF 4.7 million.

Result for the yearThe consolidated result for the year increased by 12.4 per cent to EUR 13.0 million compared to the previous year. The financial result improved by EUR 1.1 million and amounted to EUR – 1.1 million (previous year: EUR – 2.2 mil-lion). The main reason for the improvement was a further repayment of financial liabilities. Due to the decreased business performance and different profit distribution within the Group, income taxes decreased to EUR 4.6 mil-lion (previous year: EUR 10.2 million). Germany accounted for the biggest share of income taxes with EUR 1.7 million (previous year: EUR 7.8 million). The separate financial statements of Weleda AG showed a loss of CHF 2.5 million (previous year: profit of CHF 8.1 million).

Financial and assets situationThe equity ratio of the Weleda Group again increased and amounts to 46.7 per cent (previous year: 43.8 per cent) due to the improved net result for the year and the repay-ment of financial debt. Consolidated cash flow from operating activities amount-ed to EUR 29.3 million (previous year: EUR 19.4 million). Cash flows from investing activities increased, compared with the previous year, by EUR 2.3 million to EUR 12.8 mil-lion (previous year: EUR 10.5 million). Of the gross invest-ments of EUR 12.9 million, EUR 1.3 million were invested in intangible assets and EUR 11.6 million in property, plant and equipment. Around three quarters of the investments in property, plant and equipment or intangible assets were made at the two main production sites in Schwäbisch Gmünd and Arlesheim. Cash flow after investing activities amount-ed to EUR 16.5 million (previous year: EUR 8.9 million).

11.7 million). This means that Weleda held up well in 2017 despite an intensely competitive market. The net sales from the individual Company Weleda AG increased by 2.7 per cent or CHF 7.5 million year-on-year.

Development of sales by markets and regionsAround 51 per cent (previous year: 52 per cent) of sales were generated in the D – A – CH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland). Sales in this region increased slightly by 0.4 per cent to EUR 203.4 million (previous year: EUR 202.6 million). Sales in France increased by 5.4 per cent and amounted to EUR 90.7 million (previous year: EUR 86.1 mil-lion). Sales in the other regions increased by a total of 5.6 per cent to EUR 106.8 million (previous year: EUR 101.1 million).

Development of sales in the business segmentsNatural and organic cosmetics accounted for EUR 292.4 mil-lion or 72.9 per cent of global sales (previous year: EUR 280.8 million or 72.0 per cent). The sales generated by pharmaceuticals decreased slightly to EUR 108.5 million (previous year: 109.0 million), corresponding to 27.1 per cent (previous year: 28.0 per cent) of total sales. Global sales of the pharmaceuticals business segment decreased by 0.5 per cent in 2017 (previous year: decrease of 4.8 per cent). Sales in the D – A – CH region, which gen-erated about 44 per cent of sales, decreased by about 2.7 per cent compared with the previous year. Growth momentum came primarily from the South America region with growth in sales of 29 per cent. Sales in the other markets decreased by 3.1 per cent compared to the previ-ous year. Global sales of the natural and organic cosmetics busi-ness segment grew significantly by 4.1 per cent compared with the previous year (2.0 per cent sales growth in 2016). The growth regions of Western Europe, South America, Asia and Pacific as well as Central and Eastern Europe, including Russia and Ukraine, were primarily responsible for the improvement. Sales increased by 1.4 per cent in the D – A – CH region. Sales growth in all other countries totalled 5.6 per cent.

Operating resultThe consolidated operating result (EBIT) of the Weleda Group fell, despite higher sales compared to the previous year, by EUR 5.2 million to EUR 18.7 million (previous year: EUR 23.9 million). The EBIT margin decreased to 4.7 per

Financial liabilities decreased, adjusted by exchange rate effects of EUR 11.0 million, to EUR 10.2 million (previous year: EUR 21.2 million). Cash and cash equivalents in-creased by EUR 3.6 million to EUR 47.3 million at the end of the year. This resulted in a net financial credit balance of EUR 37.4 million (previous year: EUR 22.4 million). Cash flow from operating activities for Weleda AG amounted to CHF 30.7 million (previous year: CHF 12.1 mil-lion) in the year under review and, after the deduction of net investments of CHF 15.3 million (previous year: CHF 8.7 million), still came to CHF 15.4 million (previous year: CHF 3.4 million). Weleda AG repaid CHF 10.3 million (pre-vious year: CHF 17.2 million) in interest-bearing liabilities in the year under review.

Extraordinary eventsIn the year under review there were no significant extra-ordinary events.

Research and development activitiesThe growth of natural and organic cosmetics was mainly driven by market expansion and innovation. In pharmaceu-tical research, Weleda has continued to press ahead with the development of competencies. For both segments together, Weleda again invested double-digit millions in research and development this year.

Outlook for 2018In view of the current market conditions, planned inno-vation and the market presence of Weleda, we see con-tinued good opportunities for double-digit percentage growth of natural and organic cosmetics in the USA, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Spain, the Czech Re public, Russia and Ukraine. We expect lower but positive average growth in the other countries. With regard to pharmaceuticals, we also expect to see stable sales. Due to decisions made about future developments such as further investments in research and development, expansion of the pharmaceuticals strategy, the product- mix strategy for natural and organic cosmetics, and market development outside Europe, we expect no increase in the operating income in the coming year despite the growth of sales.

M A N A G E M E N T A N D F I N A N C EM A N A G E M E N T R E P O R T


42 43

Consolidated Annual Financial Report 2017

Weleda Group

BALANCE SHEET OF THE WELEDA GROUP 46

INCOME STATEMENT OF THE WELEDA GROUP 47

CASH FLOW STATEMENT OF THE WELEDA GROUP 48

STATEMENT OF SHAREHOLDERS’ EQUITY OF THE WELEDA GROUP 49

NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OF THE WELEDA GROUP 50

REPORT OF THE STATUTORY AUDITOR 62

Statutory auditor

Ernst & Young AG

Basel , Switzerland

Corporate headquarters

Weleda AG

Dychweg 14, 4144 Arlesheim, Switzerland

Tel. +41 61 705 21 21

www.weleda.com, www.weleda.ch

Branch in Germany

Weleda AG

Möhlerstr. 3 – 5, 73525 Schwäbisch Gmünd

Germany

Tel. +49 7171 91 90

www.weleda.de

Contact person for shareholders

Paul Mackay, Chairman of the Board of Directors

Secretariat and share register

Sabine Lexen

Tel. +41 61 705 22 02

Operating result (EBIT)in million EUR

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

32.9

18.7

23.9

35.1

34.0

Result attributable to shareholdersin million EUR

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

10.1

12.9

11.2

9.3

4.2

Investments in intangible assets and property, plant and equipmentin million EUR

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

8.0

12.9

7.6

6.9

4.1

Sales at respective year-end exchange ratesin million EUR (change from previous year)

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

389.5 (+ 6.9 %)

400.9 (+ 2.8 %)

389.8 (+ 0.1 %)

364.3 (+ 8.2 %)

336.7 (+ 4.4 %)

Sales adjusted for exchange rate effectsin million EUR (change from the previous year adjusted for shift in exchange rates as at December 31st 2017)

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

384.9 (+ 5.1 %)

400.9 (+ 3.0 %)

389.2 (+ 1.1 %)

366.2 (+ 8.3 %)

338.0 (+ 5.3 %)

Natural and organic cosmetics and pharmaceuticals Weleda Group

Total:EUR 400.9

million

Weleda natural and organic cosmetics

72.9 %

Weleda pharmaceuticals 27.1 %

Market performance of Weleda Group by regionin million EUR (exchange rate-adjusted changes from the previous year)

Total:EUR 400.9

million

D – A – CHGermany, Austria, Switzerland

203.4(+ 0.7 %)

Western EuropeFrance, United Kingdom, Benelux

115.0(+ 3.7 %)

Northern, Central, Eastern EuropeScandinavia, Russia, Czech Republic, Ukraine, CEE

21.3(+ 9.0 %)

North America 13.2(+ 4.5 %)

South America, Italy, Spain 35.9(+ 7.8 %)

Asia / Pacific 12.1(+ 12.2 %)

45


44

Balance sheet of the Weleda Group

Assetsin 1,000 EUR

Notes 31.12.2017 31.12.2016

Current assets

Cash and cash equivalents 47,306 43,715

Trade receivables 1 61,265 61,699

Other current receivables 14,003 5,497

Inventories 2 53,329 53,192

Prepaid expenses and accrued income 4,554 7,110

Total current assets 180,457 171,213

Non-current assets

Financial assets 3 1,437 4,327

Investments in non-controlling interests 3 806 731

Property, plant and equipment 3 67,418 67,541

Intangible assets 3 3,670 4,787

Total non-current assets 73,331 77,386

Total assets 253,788 248,599

Liabilities and shareholders’ equityin 1,000 EUR

Notes 31.12.2017 31.12.2016

Liabilities

Current liabilities

Trade payables 4 24,766 19,983

Current interest-bearing liabilities 9,867 11,247

Other current liabilities 5 10,692 10,378

Current provisions 6 8,511 5,285

Accrued expenses and deferred income 13,790 15,439

Total current liabilities 67,626 62,332

Non-current liabilities

Non-current interest-bearing liabilities 7 0 10,027

Other non-current liabilities 1,947 1,667

Non-current provisions 6 65,593 65,763

Total non-current liabilities 67,540 77,457

Total liabilities 135,166 139,789

Shareholders’ equity

Share capital 3,800 3,800

Non-voting share capital 7,600 7,600

Capital reserves 9,600 9,600

Retained earnings 98,006 85,541

Treasury voting and non-voting shares 8 – 1,102 – 1,079

Shareholders’ equity excl. non-controlling interests 117,904 105,462

Non-controlling interests 718 3,348

Shareholders’ equity incl. non-controlling interests 118,622 108,810

Total liabilities and shareholders’ equity 253,788 248,599

Income statement of the Weleda Group

in 1,000 EUR

Notes 2017 2016

Net sales of goods and services 9 400,902 389,811

Other income 10 2,385 3,006

Change in inventories of finished goods and work in progress 3,189 – 3,103

Total operating income 406,476 389,714

Cost of materials – 91,647 – 92,107

Employee income and social expenditure 11 – 147,743 – 139,008

Other operating expenses 12 – 138,317 – 125,016

Depreciation, amortisation and impairment losses on non-current assets 13 – 10,078 – 9,655

Total operating expenses – 387,785 – 365,786

Operating result (EBIT) 18,691 23,928

Financial expenses 14 – 1,356 – 2,421

Financial income 249 241

Ordinary result for the year 17,584 21,748

Income taxes 15 – 4,624 – 10,220

Consolidated result for the year 12,960 11,528

Attributable to shareholders of Weleda AG 12,907 11,200

Attributable to non-controlling interests 53 328

A N N U A L F I N A N C I A L R E P O R T 2 0 1 7W E L E D A G R O U P


46 47

Cash flow statement of the Weleda Group Statement of shareholders’ equity of the Weleda Group

in 1,000 EUR

2017 2016

Consolidated result for the year 12,960 11,528

Depreciation, amortisation and impairment losses on non-current assets 10,078 9,655

Changes in provisions 6,772 – 4,723

Gain / loss from the disposal of non-current assets 42 30

Changes in trade receivables – 986 – 8,434

Changes in inventories – 1,962 12,800

Changes in other current receivables and prepaid expenses / accrued income – 3,644 – 4,083

Changes in trade payables 5,301 689

Changes in other current liabilities and accrued expenses / deferred income – 272 1,558

Other non-cash items 812 620

Currency and valuation influences not affecting liquidity 287 10

Share of result of associated companies – 85 – 202

Cash flow from operating activities 29,303 19,448

Investments in property, plant and equipment – 11,637 – 5,962

Divestments of property, plant and equipment 97 9

Investments in financial assets – 16 – 2,975

Divestments of financial assets 79 89

Investments in intangible assets – 1,307 – 1,623

Divestments of intangible assets 0 11

Cash flow from investing activities – 12,784 – 10,451

Dividend payments to shareholders / non-controlling interests – 865 – 647

Cash flow from change in current interest-bearing liabilities (net) – 8,640 – 17,659

Repayment of non-current interest-bearing liabilities – 2,351 0

Disposal of treasury voting and non-voting shares 0 23

Addition of treasury voting and non-voting shares – 23 – 90

Cash flow from financing activities – 11,879 – 18,373

Total cash flow 4,640 – 9,376

Cash and cash equivalents at start of reporting period 43,715 52,928


Currency translation effect on cash and cash equivalents – 1,049 163

Cash and cash equivalents at end of period 47,306 43,715

in 1,000 EUR

Company capital 1

Capital reserves

(agio)

Accumulated currency

difference

Other retained earnings

Treasury voting and non-voting

shares

Total excl. non-

controlling interests

Non- controlling

interests

Total incl. non-

controlling interests

Shareholders’ equity as at January 1st 2016 11,400 9,600 – 1,693 76,029 – 1,012 94,324 3,092 97,416

Result for the year 11,200 11,200 328 11,528

Dividends – 630 – 630 – 17 – 647

Change in treasury voting and non-voting shares – 67 – 67 – 67

Currency translation effect / Other 2 738 – 103 0 635 – 55 580

Shareholders’ equity as at December 31st 2016 11,400 9,600 – 955 86,496 – 1,079 105,462 3,348 108,810

Result for the year 12,907 12,907 53 12,960

Dividends – 865 – 865 – 865

Change in treasury voting and non-voting shares – 23 – 23 – 23

Currency translation effect / Other 2 – 1,906 2,329 423 – 2,683 – 2,260

Shareholders’ equity as at December 31st 2017 11,400 9,600 – 2,861 100,867 – 1,102 117,904 718 118,622

1 Company capital is broken down as follows: 6,880 registered voting shares at CHF 112.50 3,984 registered voting shares at CHF 125.00 3,478 registered voting shares at CHF 1,000.00 19,000 registered non-voting shares at CHF 500.00 There was no change in the Company capital versus the prior year.

2 The item Other retained earnings includes under Other a goodwill / badwill on the buyout of non-controlling interests.



48 49

Notes to the consolidated financial statements of the Weleda Group

GeneralDue to rounding, individual figures in this report may not add up exactly to the reported sum. Key figures and changes are calculated based on the exact amount and not the reported rounded amount.

Consolidation principles

Accounting principlesThis Annual Financial Report has been prepared in accordance with uniform accounting standards (Weleda Accounting Manual). These accounting standards comply with the provisions on commercial accounting of the Swiss Code of Obligations (article 957 – 963 b OR). The consolidated financial statements of the Weleda Group comply with the law and the Articles of Incorporation. Certain items of the balance sheet as well as the income statement are summarised in order to provide the reader with a better overview. These items are explained in detail in the notes.

Scope of consolidationIn addition to Weleda AG Arlesheim and its branch Weleda AG Schwäbisch Gmünd, 21 subsidiaries are fully consolidated within the Weleda Group statements. These companies are, without exception, Group com panies and controlled by Weleda AG Arlesheim. Weleda AG has direct or indirect invest-ments of more than 50 per cent in these companies. In the year under review Weleda F + E AG and Weleda Ukraine LLC were incorporated and added to the scope of consolidation. The non-controlling interest in Japan is consolidated using the equity method. The consolidated companies are listed in the notes.

Consolidation methodThe consolidated financial statements are based on the annual statements of the Group companies as at December 31st 2017, which are prepared in accordance with the provisions of the Weleda Accounting Manual. The consolidation period is the calendar year. Capital consolidation is carried out in accordance with the Anglo-Saxon purchase method. For the fully consolidated companies, assets, liabilities, expenses and income are stated at 100 per cent. Non-controlling interests in consolidated shareholders’ equity and profit / loss for the year are disclosed separately. The carrying amounts of the parent company’s investment are offset against the current share-holders’ equity of the subsidiary companies. In accordance with the full consolidation method, assets and liabilities as well as expenses and income also of those companies in which a third party is involved are included in full in the Group accounts. Third parties’ shares of shareholders’ equity and of the results of consolidated companies are disclosed separately.

Currency translationThe financial statements of consolidated companies in foreign currencies are translated as follows: current assets, non-current assets and liabilities are translated at year-end rates (rate on balance sheet date), shareholders’ equity at historical rates. The income statement and the cash flow state-ment are translated using average rates for the year. The resulting currency translation effects are booked directly in retained earnings without impacting profit and loss. The following currency exchange rates are applied:

Intragroup transactions, balances and intercompany profitsAll intragroup transactions and balances are eliminated, as were all intercompany profits stated in the balance sheet.

Balance sheet and valuation principlesIn general, assets and liabilities are valued on an individual basis in so far as they are material and cannot be treated together as a group as is customary due to their similarity.

Sales recognitionSales are recognised on the transfer of risks and benefits to customers or upon provision of the service. This generally corresponds to delivery of the products.

Current assetsReceivables and other current assets are reported at their nominal values. The general risk of loss and individual credit risk have been accounted for on the basis of value adjustments. The valuation of inventories is conducted on the basis of acquisition or production cost while observing the princi-ple of lower of cost or market.

Non-current assetsAcquired intangible assets are recognised at the cost of acquisition, less amortisation. Property, plant and equipment is recognised at acquisition or production cost minus depreciation. Small-value intangible assets and property, plant and equipment with a value of less than EUR 1,000 are depre-ciated in full in the year they are added. Financial assets are recognised at the cost of acquisition. Equity holdings are consolidated using the equity method. Where there are indications of non-current assets being overvalued, carrying values have been reviewed and, where necessary, adjusted.

LiabilitiesLiabilities are recognised based on their nominal value. Provisions for pension plans and similar obli-gations are determined based on actuarial principles. The remaining provisions cover all recognisable risks for un determined obligations. Liabilities are recognised at the respective amount at which they are to be repaid.

Leasing transactionsLeasing and rental contracts are recognised on the basis of legal ownership. Accordingly, expenses as lessee are recognised on an accrual basis, whereas the leased or rented objects themselves are not recognised. The total amount of outstanding non-current rental and leasing obligations is included in the notes.

YEAR-END RATESin EUR

2017Rates on balance

sheet date

2017Average rates

2016Rates on balance

sheet date

2016Average rates

1 CHF (Swiss franc) 0.855 0.900 0.933 0.917

1 USD (US dollar) 0.833 0.886 0.948 0.904

1 GBP (pound sterling) 1.127 1.141 1.172 1.225

1 BRL (Brazilian real) 0.251 0.278 0.291 0.261



50 51

Notes to the balance sheet and the income statement

1 Trade receivables

2 Inventories

in 1,000 EUR

31.12.2017 31.12.2016

From third parties 60,596 61,164

From companies in which a non-controlling interest is held 529 477

From shareholders 140 58

Total trade receivables 61,265 61,699

in 1,000 EUR31.12.2017 31.12.2016

Raw, auxiliary and operating materials 16,119 15,409

Unfinished products 10,284 11,166

Finished products 5,835 6,071

Trade goods 22,928 22,180

Value adjustments on inventories – 1,837 – 1,634

Total inventories 53,329 53,192

3 Non-current assets

Financial assets include non-current amounts due from third parties, securities and investments of less than 20 per cent.

Investments in non-controlling interests include investments in companies in which the Weleda Group holds between 20 and 50 per cent. Increases are due to equity valuation. Increases in intangible assets mainly comprise software. The increase in property, plant and equipment consists primarily of investment projects as well as investment in replacements in Germany, France and Switzerland. In 2017, around EUR 4 million of all investments in property, plant and equipment was allocated to the new administration building in Switzerland.

The largest share of the amount under Property, plant and equipment, totalling EUR 24 million (2016: EUR 23 million), relates to Switzerland. The branch in Germany accounts for EUR 15 million (2016: EUR 15 million) and Weleda France has property, plant and equipment totalling EUR 12 million (2016: EUR 13 million).

in 1,000 EURFinancial

assetsInvestments

in non- controlling

interests

Property, plant and

equipment

Intangible assets

Total non-current

assets

as at January 1st 2016 1,983 527 69,266 5,046 76,822

Currency translation effect – 128 2 432 62 368

Equity valuation 0 202 0 0 202

Additions 2,975 0 5,962 1,623 10,560

Disposals – 498 0 – 402 – 11 – 911

Reclassification within non-current assets 0 0 – 433 433 0

Depreciation, amortisation and impairment losses – 5 0 – 7,284 – 2,366 – 9,655

as at December 31st 2016 4,327 731 67,541 4,787 77,386

Currency translation effect – 114 – 10 – 2,756 – 148 – 3,028

Equity valuation 0 85 0 0 85

Additions 16 0 11,637 1,307 12,960

Disposals – 2,783 0 – 929 – 282 – 3,994

Reclassification within non-current assets 0 0 – 214 214 0

Depreciation, amortisation and impairment losses – 9 0 – 7,861 – 2,208 – 10,078

as at December 31st 2017 1,437 806 67,418 3,670 73,331



52 53

4 Trade payables

5 Other current liabilities

6 Provisions

in 1,000 EUR31.12.2017 31.12.2016

To third parties 24,680 19,935

To the Group auditor Ernst & Young 86 48

Total trade payables 24,766 19,983

in 1,000 EUR31.12.2017 31.12.2016


To shareholders 13 10

To the Group auditor Ernst & Young 16 0

Total other current liabilities 10,692 10,378

in 1,000 EURPension

provisionsTax

provisions 1Other

provisions 2Total

provisions

as at January 1st 2016 31,716 332 42,981 75,029

Increase 1,021 0 1,449 2,470

Utilisation – 265 – 8 – 6,541 – 6,814

Decrease – 53 0 – 327 – 380

Currency translation effect – 1,235 42 1,936 743

as at December 31st 2016 31,184 366 39,498 71,048

Increase 2,226 0 6,188 8,414

Utilisation – 290 – 95 – 1,112 – 1,497

Decrease 0 0 – 146 – 146

Currency translation effect – 342 – 40 – 3,333 – 3,715

as at December 31st 2017 32,778 231 41,095 74,105

Of which current provisions 4,168 0 4,343 8,511

Of which non-current provisions 28,610 231 36,752 65,593

1 The item Tax provisions includes only provisions for deferred taxes.

2 The item Other provisions includes, inter alia, currency provisions, provisions for strategic projects and procurement for replacements following the sale of Iscador, provisions for legal cases and provisions for jubilee and other long-service bonuses. Of a total utilisation of EUR 6.5 million, EUR 5.4 million was reclassified to deferred income in 2016.

7 Non-current interest-bearing liabilities

All financial liabilities due within the following 12 months are disclosed in current interest-bearing liabilities.

8 Treasury voting and non-voting shares

Additions and disposals are purchases, sales as well as exchange of treasury voting and non-voting shares. Purchases were executed at 250 per cent of the nominal value. No sales were made either in the reporting year or in the previous year.

in 1,000 EUR

31.12.2017 31.12.2016

Bank loans 0 8,712

Funds and trustee loans 0 1,315

Total non-current interest-bearing liabilities 0 10,027

MATURITYin 1,000 EUR

31.12.2017 31.12.2016

Residual maturity 1 to 5 years 0 10,027

Residual maturity over 5 years 0 0

Total non-current interest-bearing liabilities 0 10,027

in 1,000 EUR2017 2016

Stock of treasury voting shares as at January 1st (in number: 177 / prior year: 139) 355 265

Addition of treasury voting shares (in number: 18 / prior year: 38) 23 90

Disposal of treasury voting shares (in number: 0 / prior year: 0) 0 0

Stock of treasury voting shares as at December 31st (in number: 195 / prior year: 177) 378 355

Stock of treasury non-voting shares as at January 1st (in number: 715 / prior year: 735) 724 747

Addition of treasury non-voting shares (in number: 0 / prior year: 0) 0 0

Disposal of treasury non-voting shares (in number: 0 / prior year: 20) 0 – 23

Stock of treasury non-voting shares as at December 31st (in number: 715 / prior year: 715) 724 724

Total treasury voting and non-voting shares as at December 31st 1,102 1,079



54 55

9 Net sales of goods and services

10 Other income

Other income mainly comprises rental income, service revenues from the showroom Espace Paris as well as refunds from suppliers.

PRODUCT GROUPS

2017 in 1,000 EUR

2017 in %

2016 in 1,000 EUR

2016 in %

Natural and organic cosmetics 292,385 72.9 280,757 72.0

Pharmaceuticals 108,517 27.1 109,054 28.0

Net sales 400,902 100.0 389,811 100.0

REGIONS

2017 in 1,000 EUR

2017 in %

2016 in 1,000 EUR

2016 in %

D – A – CH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) 203,370 50.7 202,607 52.0

Western Europe (France, UK, Benelux) 115,030 28.7 111,499 28.6

Northern, Central and Eastern Europe (Scandinavia, Russia, Czech Republic, Ukraine, CEE) 21,346 5.3 19,117 4.9

North America 13,163 3.3 12,848 3.3

South America, Italy, Spain 35,910 9.0 32,924 8.4

Asia / Pacific 12,083 3.0 10,816 2.8

Net sales 400,902 100.0 389,811 100.0

in 1,000 EUR2017 2016

Total other income 2,385 3,006

11 Employee income and social expenditure

12 Other operating expenses

Other operating expenses includes, but is not limited to, sales and distribution costs such as adver-tising and market communication, sales documents, material costs of sales representatives and all postal costs. Operating and administrative costs include costs for building and machine main-tenance, legal and consulting costs, IT expenses and costs for third-party research as well as non- operating expenses. The item Other expenses includes donations to the School of Spiritual Science in Dornach as well as to other different anthroposophic institutions with a total amount of EUR 2.1 million (2016: EUR 2.4 million).

13 Depreciation, amortisation and impairment losses on non-current assets

in 1,000 EUR2017 2016

Employee income 114,711 108,671

Social expenditure 33,032 30,337

Total employee income and social expenditure 147,743 139,008

in 1,000 EUR2017 2016

Sales and distribution costs 85,199 79,623

Operating costs 20,170 20,912

Administrative costs 26,644 18,130

Contributions, levies, property and capital taxes 2,890 2,557

Other expenses 3,414 3,794

Total other operating expenses 138,317 125,016

in 1,000 EUR2017 2016

Financial assets 9 5

Property, plant and equipment 7,861 7,284

Intangible assets 2,208 2,366

Total depreciation, amortisation and impairment losses on non-current assets 10,078 9,655



56 57

14 Financial expenses

The item Interest and similar expenses includes interest in the amount of EUR 0.5 million (2016: EUR 0.9 million) for the GLS fund in Germany and the Swiss trustee loans.

15 Income taxesIncome taxes occurred mainly in Germany, Switzerland and France.

in 1,000 EUR2017 2016

Interest and similar expenses – 1,314 – 2,007

Realised and unrealised foreign currency result, net – 42 – 414

Total financial expenses – 1,356 – 2,421

Full-time equivalentsThe annual average number of full-time equivalents for the reporting year, as well as the previous year, exceeded 250. Changes in full-time equivalents are stated in the management report.

Contingent liabilities and other financial obligations

The derivative financial instruments relate to interest hedges (variable to fixed rate) in France for existing financial liabilities.

Non-current rental and leasing obligations

There are rental and leasing obligations for computer hardware, vehicles and production machinery as well as buildings.

Fee for the Group auditor Ernst & Young

in 1,000 EUR

31.12.2017 31.12.2016

Guarantees 100 100

Contingent liabilities 301 350

Fair value of derivative financial instruments 377 694

in 1,000 EUR

31.12.2017 31.12.2016

Residual maturity up to 5 years 14,946 15,565

Residual maturity over 5 years 4,574 6,280

Total non-current rental and leasing obligations 19,520 21,845

in 1,000 EUR

31.12.2017 31.12.2016

Auditing services 202 213

Other services 181 127

Total fee 383 340

Other information



58 59

Overview of Group and holding companies

Consolidated companies

Registered office Function Currency Company capital in

1,000

Capital share 2017

in %

Capital share 2016

in %

Weleda AGCH – Arlesheim/ D – Schwäbisch Gmünd

Headquarters: incl. production, trade and services CHF 4,750 100.0 100.0

Weleda Benelux SE NL – Zoetermeer Production and trade EUR 2,269 100.0 100.0

Weleda Ges. m. b. H. A – Vienna No operative function EUR 36 100.0 100.0

Weleda Ges. m. b. H. & Co KG A – Vienna Trade EUR 1,100 100.0 100.0

Weleda Trademark AG CH – Arlesheim Services EUR 920 100.0 100.0

Weleda Inc. USA – Irvington, N. Y. Trade USD 8,525 100.0 100.0

Weleda Italia S. r. l. I – Milan Trade EUR 500 100.0 100.0

Weleda do Brasil Ltda. BRA – São Paulo Production and trade BRL 27,140 100.0 100.0

Weleda Naturals GmbH D – Schwäbisch Gmünd Services EUR 25 100.0 100.0

Weleda East GmbH RUS – Moscow Trade RUB 10 100.0 100.0

Weleda S. A. U. E – Madrid Trade EUR 685 100.0 100.0

Weleda (NZ) Ltd NZL – Havelock North Production and trade NZD 169 100.0 100.0

Weleda Australia Pty Ltd AUS – Warriewood Trade AUD 0 100.0 100.0

Weleda AB S – Stockholm Trade SEK 2,000 100.0 100.0

Weleda (Australasia) Ltd NZL – Havelock North Services NZD 1,139 100.0 100.0

Weleda Chile SpA CHL – Santiago de Chile Production and trade CLP 491,321 100.0 100.0

Weleda F + E AG CH – Arlesheim Services CHF 3,000 100.0 –

Weleda Ukraine LLC UA – Kiev Trade UAH 500 100.0 –

Weleda spol. s.r.o. CZ – Prague Trade CZK 19,684 99.5 99.4

Weleda UK Ltd GB – Ilkeston Production and trade GBP 1,495 98.1 97.2

Weleda S. A. F – Huningue Production and trade EUR 3,400 98.1 90.0

Weleda S. A. ARG – Buenos Aires Production and trade ARS 7,622 95.0 95.0

Weleda Japan Co., Ltd. JP – Nagoya Production and trade JPY 10,000 35.0 35.0

Total amount of assets pledged or assigned to secure own liabilities and assets under reservation of ownership

Restricted cash

Significant events after the balance sheet dateThere are no significant events after the balance sheet date which could impact the book value of the assets or liabilities or which should be disclosed here.

in 1,000 EUR

31.12.2017 31.12.2016

Weleda Group 26,032 28,574

in 1,000 EUR

31.12.2017 31.12.2016

Within current assets 2,954 233

Within non-current assets 0 2,812

Total restricted cash 2,954 3,045

The share of voting rights corresponds to the capital share.



60 61

Report of the statutory auditorTo the General Meeting of Weleda AG, Arlesheim

Report of the statutory auditor on the consolidated financial statements

As statutory auditor, we have audited the accompanying consolidated financial statements of Weleda AG, which comprise the balance sheet, income statement, cash flow statement, statement of shareholders’ equity and notes (pages 46 to 61), for the year ended 31 December 2017.

Board of Directors’ responsibilityThe Board of Directors is responsible for the preparation of the consolidated financial statements in accordance with the requirements of Swiss law and the consolidation and valuation principles as set out in the notes. This re-sponsibility includes designing, implementing and main-taining an internal control system relevant to the prepa-ration of consolidated financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error. The Board of Directors is further responsible for selecting and applying appropriate accounting policies and making accounting estimates that are reasonable in the circum-stances.

Auditor’s responsibilityOur responsibility is to express an opinion on these consol-idated financial statements based on our audit. We con-ducted our audit in accordance with Swiss law and Swiss Auditing Standards. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance whether the consolidated financial statements are free from material misstatement. An audit involves performing procedures to obtain audit evidence about the amounts and disclosures in the consol-idated financial statements. The procedures selected de-pend on the auditor’s judgment, including the assessment of the risks of material misstatement of the consolidated financial statements, whether due to fraud or error. In making those risk assessments, the auditor considers the internal control system relevant to the entity’s prepara-tion of the consolidated financial statements in order to design audit procedures that are appropriate in the circum-stances, but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the entity’s internal control sys-tem. An audit also includes evaluating the appropriateness of the accounting policies used and the reasonableness of accounting estimates made, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the consolidated financial state-ments. We believe that the audit evidence we have ob-tained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our audit opinion.

OpinionIn our opinion, the consolidated financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2017 comply with Swiss law and the consolidation and valuation principles as set out in the notes.

Report on other legal requirements

We confirm that we meet the legal requirements on licens-ing according to the Auditor Oversight Act (AOA) and inde-pendence (article 728 CO) and that there are no circum-stances incompatible with our independence. In accordance with article 728 a paragraph 1 item 3 CO and Swiss Auditing Standard 890, we confirm that an in-ternal control system exists, which has been designed for the preparation of consolidated financial statements ac-cording to the instructions of the Board of Directors. We recommend that the consolidated financial state-ments submitted to you be approved.

Basle, April 14 th 2018Ernst & Young Ltd

Annual Financial Report 2017

Weleda AGConsisting of Arlesheim headquarters and branch office Schwäbisch Gmünd

BALANCE SHEET OF WELEDA AG 64

INCOME STATEMENT OF WELEDA AG 65

CASH FLOW STATEMENT OF WELEDA AG 66

STATEMENT OF SHAREHOLDERS’ EQUITY OF WELEDA AG 67

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OF WELEDA AG 68

PROPOSED APPROPRIATION OF THE RESULT FOR THE YEAR 76

REPORT OF THE STATUTORY AUDITOR 77

Daniel ZauggLicensed audit expert(Auditor in charge)

Karina KamellaLicensed audit expert

63


62

Balance sheet of Weleda AG Income statement of Weleda AG

Assetsin 1,000 CHF

Notes 31.12.2017 31.12.2016

Current assets

Cash and cash equivalents 17,656 12,563

Trade receivables 1 52,172 47,362

Other current receivables 2 11,111 5,858

Inventories 55,194 48,156

Prepaid expenses and accrued income 1,911 3,213

Total current assets 138,044 117,152

Non-current assets

Financial assets 3 8,487 5,391

Equity investments 4 18,793 23,171

Property, plant and equipment 46,067 41,529

Intangible assets 4,913 6,808

Total non-current assets 78,260 76,899

Total assets 216,304 194,051

Liabilities and shareholders’ equityin 1,000 CHF

Notes 31.12.2017 31.12.2016

Liabilities

Current liabilities

Trade payables 5 15,497 8,176

Current interest-bearing liabilities 9,073 10,196

Other current liabilities 6 22,363 2,325

Current provisions 8 9,739 4,352

Accrued expenses and deferred income 8,768 11,502

Total current liabilities 65,440 36,551

Non-current liabilities

Non-current interest-bearing liabilities 7 18,992 25,860

Non-current provisions 8 47,354 43,624

Total non-current liabilities 66,346 69,484

Total liabilities 131,786 106,035

Shareholders’ equity

Share capital 4,750 4,750

Non-voting share capital 9,500 9,500

Statutory capital reserves 12,000 12,000

Statutory retained earnings 3,400 3,400

Voluntary retained earnings 56,167 59,637

Treasury voting and non-voting shares 9 – 1,298 – 1,271

Total shareholders’ equity 84,518 88,016

Total liabilities and shareholders’ equity 216,304 194,051

in 1,000 CHF

Notes 2017 2016

Net sales of goods and services 288,287 280,759

Other income 9,696 7,518

Change in inventories of finished goods and work in progress 2,577 – 1,341

Total operating income 300,560 286,936

Cost of materials – 93,614 – 90,581

Employee income and social expenditure – 103,937 – 96,371

Other operating expenses – 88,345 – 71,991

Depreciation, amortisation and impairment losses on non-current assets – 15,066 – 8,291

Total operating expenses – 300,962 – 267,234

Operating result (EBIT) – 402 19,702

Financial expenses 10 – 1,442 – 3,435

Financial income 11 1,240 348

Result for the year before tax – 604 16,615

Income taxes – 1,905 – 8,556

Result for the year – 2,509 8,059

A N N U A L F I N A N C I A L R E P O R T 2 0 1 7W E L E D A A G


64 65

Cash flow statement of Weleda AG Statement of shareholders’ equity of Weleda AG

in 1,000 CHF

2017 2016

Result for the year – 2,509 8,059

Depreciation, amortisation and impairment losses on non-current assets 15,066 8,291

Changes in provisions 2,591 – 6,104

Gain / loss from the disposal of non-current assets 56 9

Changes in trade receivables – 1,261 – 5,435

Changes in inventories – 2,816 7,559

Changes in other current receivables and prepaid expenses / accrued income – 3,509 – 989

Changes in trade payables 6,538 – 1,170

Changes in other current liabilities and accrued expenses / deferred income 15,911 245

Other non-cash items 1,244 436

Currency and valuation influences not affecting liquidity – 647 1,170

Cash flow from operating activities 30,664 12,071

Investments in property, plant and equipment – 9,972 – 3,265

Divestments of property, plant and equipment 47 3

Investments in financial assets – 4,840 – 4,278

Divestments of financial assets 337 77

Investments in intangible assets – 907 – 1,194

Cash flow from investing activities – 15,335 – 8,657

Dividend payments to shareholders – 962 – 688

Cash flow from changes in current interest-bearing liabilities (net) – 7,844 – 17,173

Repayment of non-current interest-bearing liabilities – 2,432 0

Disposal of treasury voting and non-voting shares 0 25

Addition of treasury voting and non-voting shares – 27 – 97

Cash flow from financing activities – 11,265 – 17,933


Cash and cash equivalents at start of reporting period 12,563 27,176


Currency translation effect on cash and cash equivalents 1,029 – 94

Cash and cash equivalents at end of period 17,656 12,563

in 1,000 CHF

Company capital 1

Statutory capital

reserves (agio)

Statutory retained earnings

Voluntary retained earnings

Treasury voting and non-

voting shares

Total share holders’

equity

Shareholders’ equity as at January 1st 2016 14,250 12,000 3,400 52,266 – 1,199 80,717

Dividends to shareholders – 688 – 688

Result for the year 8,059 8,059

Change in treasury voting and non-voting shares – 72 – 72

Shareholders’ equity as at December 31st 2016 14,250 12,000 3,400 59,637 – 1,271 88,016

Dividends to shareholders – 962 – 962

Result for the year – 2,509 – 2,509

Change in treasury voting and non-voting shares – 27 – 27

Shareholders’ equity as at December 31st 2017 14,250 12,000 3,400 56,167 – 1,298 84,518

1 Company capital is broken down as follows: 6,880 registered voting shares at CHF 112.50 3,984 registered voting shares at CHF 125.00 3,478 registered voting shares at CHF 1,000.00 19,000 registered non-voting shares at CHF 500.00 There was no change in the Company capital versus the prior year.



66 67

Notes to the financial statements of Weleda AG

GeneralDue to rounding, individual figures in this report may not add up exactly to the reported sum. Key figures and changes are calculated based on the exact amount and not the reported rounded amount.

Accounting principlesThis Annual Financial Report has been prepared in accordance with uniform accounting standards (Weleda Accounting Manual). These accounting standards comply with the provisions on commercial accounting of the Swiss Code of Obligations (article 957 – 963 b OR). The Annual Financial Report of Weleda AG complies with the law and the Articles of Incorporation. Certain items of the balance sheet as well as the income statement are summarised in order to pro-vide the reader with a better overview. These items are explained in detail in the notes.

ConsistencyAs of January 1st 2017, the net book value of all equity investments is depreciated annually on a straight-line basis of 20 per cent. In previous years, equity investments were not depreciated on an annual basis but only value-adjusted as necessary. This amendment in 2017 has an impact on the income statement of CHF 4.7 million in depreciation. Without this adjustment in consistency, the result for the year would have been CHF 4.7 million higher.

Currency translationThe accounts of the German business establishment are stated in euro and translated at year end as follows: current assets, non-current assets and liabilities are translated at year-end rate (rate on balance sheet date), shareholders’ equity at historical rate. The income statement and the cash flow statement are translated using the average rate for the year. The resulting currency translation effects are booked directly in the income statement. The following currency exchange rates are applied:

Balance sheet and valuation principlesIn general, assets and liabilities are valued on an individual basis in so far as they are material and cannot be treated together as a group as is customary due to their similarity.

Sales recognitionSales are recognised on the transfer of risks and benefits to customers or upon provision of the service. This generally corresponds to delivery of the products.

YEAR-END RATEin CHF

2017Rate on balance

sheet date

2017Average rate

2016Rate on balance

sheet date

2016Average rate

1 EUR (euro) 1.170 1.112 1.072 1.090

Current assetsReceivables and other current assets are reported at their nominal values. The general risk of loss and individual credit risk have been accounted for on the basis of value adjustments. The valuation of inventories is conducted on the basis of acquisition or production cost while observing the prin-ciple of lower of cost or market.

Non-current assetsAcquired intangible assets are recognised at the cost of acquisition, less amortisation. Property, plant and equipment is recognised at acquisition or production cost minus depreciation. Small-value intangible assets and property, plant and equipment with a value of less than CHF 1,080 / EUR 1,000 are depreciated in full in the year they are added. Financial assets are recognised at the cost of acquisition. Equity investments are also recognised at acquisition values and depreciated over five years (see paragraph Consistency on page 68). Additions to equity investments of less than CHF 100,000 are fully depreciated in the year of acquisition. Where there are indications of non-current assets being overvalued, carrying values have been reviewed and, where necessary, adjusted.

LiabilitiesLiabilities are recognised on the basis of nominal value. Provisions for pension plans and similar obli-gations are determined based on actuarial principles. The remaining provisions covered all recognis-able risks for un determined obligations. Liabilities are recognised at the respective amount at which they are to be repaid.

Leasing transactionsLeasing and rental contracts are recognised on the basis of legal ownership. Accordingly, expenses as lessee are recognised on an accrual basis, whereas the leased or rented objects themselves are not recognised. The total amount of outstanding non-current rental and leasing obligations is included in the notes.



68 69

Notes to the balance sheet and the income statement

1 Trade receivables

2 Other current receivables

3 Financial assets

4 Equity investments

in 1,000 CHF31.12.2017 31.12.2016


From associated companies 18,487 14,621

From shareholders 164 62

Total trade receivables 52,172 47,362

in 1,000 CHF31.12.2017 31.12.2016


From Group companies 2,658 4,270

Total other current receivables 11,111 5,858

in 1,000 CHF31.12.2017 31.12.2016

Loans to Group companies 8,408 5,318

Other financial assets 79 73

Total financial assets 8,487 5,391

in 1,000 CHF31.12.2017 31.12.2016

Investments in Group companies with an interest of more than 50 per cent 18,663 23,041

Other equity investments 130 130

Total equity investments 18,793 23,171

5 Trade payables

6 Other current liabilities

7 Non-current interest-bearing liabilities

All financial liabilities due within the following 12 months are disclosed in current interest-bearing liabilities.

in 1,000 CHF31.12.2017 31.12.2016


To associated companies 1,009 7

To the statutory auditor Ernst & Young 53 11

Total trade payables 15,497 8,176

in 1,000 CHF31.12.2017 31.12.2016


To Group companies 19,752 9

To the statutory auditor Ernst & Young 19 0

To shareholders 15 11

Total other current liabilities 22,363 2,325

in 1,000 CHF

31.12.2017 31.12.2016

Bank loans 0 7,051

Funds and trustee loans 0 1,410

To equity investments 18,992 17,399

Total non-current interest-bearing liabilities 18,992 25,860

MATURITYin 1,000 CHF

31.12.2017 31.12.2016

Residual maturity 1 to 5 years 0 8,461

Residual maturity over 5 years 18,992 17,399

Total non-current interest-bearing liabilities 18,992 25,860



70 71

8 Provisions

Other provisions comprise, among other things, currency provisions for unrealised exchange rate gains on non-current financial positions, reserves for strategic projects, restructuring liabilities for the Weleda UK Pension Fund and provisions for jubilee and other long-term service bonuses.

9 Treasury voting and non-voting shares

Additions and disposals are purchases, sales as well as exchange of treasury voting and non-voting shares. Purchases were executed at 250 per cent of the nominal value. No sales were made either in the reporting year or in the previous year.

in 1,000 CHF31.12.2017 31.12.2016

Pension Fund 24,092 20,394

Other provisions 33,001 27,582

Total provisions 57,093 47,976

Of which current 9,739 4,352

Of which non-current 47,354 43,624

in 1,000 CHF2017 2016

Stock of treasury voting shares as at January 1st (in number: 177 / prior year: 139) 387 290

Addition of treasury voting shares (in number: 18 / prior year: 38) 27 97

Disposal of treasury voting shares (in number: 0 / prior year: 0) 0 0

Stock of treasury voting shares as at December 31st (in number: 195 / prior year: 177) 414 387

Stock of treasury non-voting shares as at January 1st (in number: 715 / prior year: 735) 884 909

Addition of treasury non-voting shares (in number: 0 / prior year: 0) 0 0

Disposal of treasury non-voting shares (in number: 0 / prior year: 20) 0 – 25

Stock of treasury non-voting shares as at December 31st (in number: 715 / prior year: 715) 884 884

Total treasury voting and non-voting shares as at December 31st 1,298 1,271

10 Financial expenses

11 Financial income

in 1,000 CHF2017 2016

Interest and similar expenses relating to Group companies – 685 – 672

Interest and similar expenses relating to third parties – 757 – 1,432

Realised and unrealised foreign currency losses, net 0 – 1,331

Total financial expenses – 1,442 – 3,435

in 1,000 CHF2017 2016

Dividends and licence income from Group companies 0 167

Realised and unrealised foreign currency gains, net 1,062 0

Interest from loans to Group companies 176 145

Interest and similar income from third parties 2 36

Total financial income 1,240 348



72 73

Other information

Full-time equivalentsThe annual average number of full-time equivalents for the reporting year, as well as the previous year, exceeded 250. Changes in full-time equivalents are stated in the management report.

Pledged or assigned assets

Contingent liabilities and other financial obligations

Guarantees mainly consist of a hedge for mortgages granted to Weleda Naturals. Weleda AG has leasing and rental obligations for computer hardware, vehicles and production machinery as well as for buildings.

Restricted cash

Fee for the statutory auditor Ernst & Young

Significant events after the balance sheet dateThere are no significant events after the balance sheet date which could impact the book value of the assets or liabilities or which should be disclosed here.

in 1,000 CHF

31.12.2017 31.12.2016

Total amount of assets pledged or assigned to secure own liabilities and assets under reservation of ownership 23,379 23,831

in 1,000 CHF

31.12.2017 31.12.2016

Guarantees 7,723 7,075

Non-current rental and leasing obligations 3,428 3,576

in 1,000 CHF

31.12.2017 31.12.2016

Restricted cash 185 200

in 1,000 CHF

2017 2016

Auditing services 169 180

Other services 184 124

Total fee 353 304

Investments

Registered office Function Currency Company capital in

1,000

Capital share 2017

in %

Capital share 2016

in %

Weleda Benelux SE NL – Zoetermeer Production and trade EUR 2,269 100.0 100.0

Weleda Ges. m. b. H. A – Vienna No operative function EUR 36 100.0 100.0

Weleda Ges. m. b. H. & Co KG A – Vienna Trade EUR 1,100 100.0 100.0

Weleda Trademark AG CH – Arlesheim Services EUR 920 100.0 100.0

Weleda Inc. USA – Irvington, N.Y. Trade USD 8,525 100.0 100.0

Weleda Italia S. r. l. I – Milan Trade EUR 500 100.0 100.0

Weleda do Brasil Ltda. BRA – São Paulo Production and trade BRL 27,140 100.0 100.0

Weleda Naturals GmbH D – Schwäbisch Gmünd Services EUR 25 100.0 100.0

Weleda East GmbH RUS – Moscow Trade RUB 10 100.0 100.0

Weleda S. A. U. E – Madrid Trade EUR 685 100.0 100.0

Weleda (NZ) Ltd NZL – Havelock North Production and trade NZD 169 100.0 100.0

Weleda Australia Pty Ltd AUS – Warriewood Trade AUD 0 100.0 100.0

Weleda AB S – Stockholm Trade SEK 2,000 100.0 100.0

Weleda (Australasia) Ltd NZL – Havelock North Services NZD 1,139 100.0 100.0

Weleda Chile SpA CHL – Santiago de Chile Production and trade CLP 491,321 100.0 100.0

Weleda F + E AG CH – Arlesheim Services CHF 3,000 100.0 –

Weleda Ukraine LLC UA – Kiev Trade UAH 500 100.0 –

Weleda spol. s.r.o. CZ – Prague Trade CZK 19,684 99.5 99.4

Weleda UK Ltd GB – Ilkeston Production and trade GBP 1,495 98.1 97.2

Weleda S. A. F – Huningue Production and trade EUR 3,400 98.1 90.0

Weleda S. A. ARG – Buenos Aires Production and trade ARS 7,622 95.0 95.0

Weleda Japan Co., Ltd. JP – Nagoya Production and trade JPY 10,000 35.0 35.0

The share of voting rights corresponds to the capital share.



74 75

Proposed appropriation of the result for the year

Dividend paymentProvided the General Shareholders’ Meeting approves the proposed appropriation of result, we will pay the dividend in calendar week 24. No dividend will be paid for voting shares and non-voting shares held directly by the Company at the time of dividend payment. Swiss federal withholding tax of 35 per cent will be deducted from the gross dividend amount. This can usually be reclaimed via tax returns. This applies to shareholders resident in Switzerland or a country with which Switzerland has concluded a double tax agreement. For this reason, the relevant banking receipt should be safely stored and enclosed with the final tax return.

Weleda AG, Arlesheim, April 14th 2018On behalf of the Board of Directors

Since the statutory capital reserves and the statutory retained earnings have reached 50 per cent of the share capital, there will be no further allocation.

Paul MackayChairman

Dr Jürg GallikerDeputy Chairman

Board of Directors’ proposed appropriation of the result for the yearin CHF

31.12.2017

Voluntary retained earnings (without result for the year) 58,675,880.18

Annual result for 2017 – 2,508,638.32

Total voluntary retained earnings 56,167,241.86

Distribution on voting share capital of CHF 4,750,000.00 332,500.00

Distribution on non-voting share capital of CHF 9,500,000.00 665,000.00

Voluntary retained earnings after dividend distribution 55,169,741.86

Voluntary retained earnings as at December 31st 2017 56,167,241.86

Voluntary retained earnings after appropriation of result 55,169,741.86

Dividendin CHF

per voting share per voting share per voting share per non-voting share

Voting share / non-voting share (nominal) 112.50 125.00 1,000.00 500.00

Annual dividend (7 per cent) 7.90 8.75 70.00 35.00

minus 35 per cent Swiss withholding tax – 2.75 – 3.05 – 24.50 – 12.25

Net dividend per voting share / non-voting share 5.15 5.70 45.50 22.75

Report of the statutory auditorTo the General Meeting of Weleda AG, Arlesheim

Report of the statutory auditor on the financial statements

As statutory auditor, we have audited the accompanying financial statements of Weleda AG, which comprise the balance sheet, income statement, cash flow statement, statement of shareholders’ equity and notes (pages 64 to 76), for the year ended 31 December 2017.

Board of Directors’ responsibilityThe Board of Directors is responsible for the preparation of the financial statements in accordance with the re-quirements of Swiss law and the company’s articles of in-corporation. This responsibility includes designing, imple-menting and maintaining an internal control system rele-vant to the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error. The Board of Directors is further responsible for selecting and applying appropriate accounting policies and making accounting estimates that are reasonable in the circumstances.

Auditor’s responsibilityOur responsibility is to express an opinion on these finan-cial statements based on our audit. We conducted our audit in accordance with Swiss law and Swiss Auditing Stand-ards. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance whether the finan-cial statements are free from material misstatement. An audit involves performing procedures to obtain audit evidence about the amounts and disclosures in the finan-cial statements. The procedures selected depend on the auditor’s judgment, including the assessment of the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to fraud or error. In making those risk assess-ments, the auditor considers the internal control system relevant to the entity’s preparation of the financial state-ments in order to design audit procedures that are appro-priate in the circumstances, but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the entity’s internal control system. An audit also includes evaluating the appropriateness of the accounting policies used and the reasonableness of accounting estimates made, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our audit opinion.

OpinionIn our opinion, the financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2017 comply with Swiss law and the com-pany’s articles of incorporation.

Report on other legal requirements

We confirm that we meet the legal requirements on licens-ing according to the Auditor Oversight Act (AOA) and in-dependence (article 728 CO) and that there are no circum-stances incompatible with our independence. In accordance with article 728 a paragraph 1 item 3 CO and Swiss Auditing Standard 890, we confirm that an in-ternal control system exists, which has been designed for the preparation of financial statements according to the instructions of the Board of Directors. We further confirm that the proposed appropriation of available earnings complies with Swiss law and the com-pany’s articles of incorporation. We recommend that the financial statements submitted to you be approved.

Basle, April 14 th 2018Ernst & Young Ltd

Daniel ZauggLicensed audit expert(Auditor in Charge)

Karina KamellaLicensed audit expert



76 77

Resources used to produce Weleda natural and organic cosmetics and pharmaceuticals

Energy consumptionin megawatt-hours

2017 2016 Change in %

Consumption within the organisation

Total renewable energy 15,674 15,606 + 0.4

Total non-renewable energy 18,237 17,171 + 6.2

Total 33,910 32,777 1 + 3.5

Consumption of non-renewable fuels

Natural gas 16,090 14,980 1 + 7.4

Heating oil 400 443 1 – 9.8

Fuels 65 83 – 21.3

Total 16,554 15,506 1 + 6.8

Consumption of renewable fuels

Biogas 1,035 1,006 + 2.9

Energy consumption of electricity, heating and cooling

Non-renewable

Electricity 1,415 1,420 – 0.4

Heating and cooling 201 174 + 15.9

Nuclear energy 57 62 – 7.5

Other forms 9 9 – 2.4

Total non-renewable 1,682 1,665 + 1.0

Renewable

Solar energy 1,948 1,988 – 2.0

Wind energy 565 687 – 17.7

Geothermal energy 2 6 – 68.1

Hydropower 10,603 10,535 + 0.6

Biomass-based intermediate energy 1,521 1,383 + 10.0

Total renewable 14,638 14,599 + 0.3

Total 16,321 16,264 + 0.3

Energy sources produced

Electricity 111 118 – 6.3

Energy sources sold

Electricity 111 118 – 6.3

1 Values deviating from the previous year’s report due to the conversion to GRI 2016

Emissionsin tonnes of CO2 equivalents

2017 2016 Change in %

Direct emissions

Emissions from production of hot water, heat and steam 1 3,987 3,494 + 14.1

Fugitive emissions 4 31 2 – 85.6

3,991 3,525 + 13.2

Indirect emissions

Electricity, etc. 1,417 1,415 + 0.1

Total 5,408 4,940 3 + 9.5

1 Excluding emissions from natural gas consumption in Switzerland (direct compensation when purchasing)

2 Too high in previous year’s report due to transmission errors

3 Values deviating from the previous year’s report due to the conversion to GRI 2016

Water consumptionin cubic metres

2017 2016 Change in %

Water withdrawal

Water from public water supply 96,880 86,117 + 12.5

Ground water 1 90,418 51,599 + 75.2

Rainwater, collected directly and stored 5,541 5,178 + 7.0

Total 192,839 142,894 + 35.0

1 Groundwater is used for thermal purposes in France.

Purchased materialsin tonnes

2017 2016 Change in %

Raw materials 1

Renewable 4,977 4,214 + 17.9

Non-renewable 296 260 + 18.1

Total 5,274 4,474 + 14.0

Packaging 1

Renewable 2,194 1,841 + 19.2

Non-renewable 3,791 4,216 – 10.1

Total 5,985 6,057 – 1.2

Advertising material 1

Renewable 724 434 + 66.8

Non-renewable 214 377 – 43.2

Total 938 811 + 15.7

Operating material 2

Renewable 54 58 – 6.8

Non-renewable 103 74 + 40.80

Total 157 131 + 19.9

78 79

N O T E SE N V I R O N M E N TA L S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y TA B L E


Semi-finished products and bulk goods 2

Renewable 40 32 + 25.9


Total 42 34 + 23.4

Trade goods 2

Renewable 227 234 – 2.9


Total 467 478 – 2.4

Proportion of renewable materials 3 8,216 6,812 + 20.6

Proportion of non-renewable materials 4,646 5,172 – 10.2

Total 12,862 11,985 + 7.3

1 Predominantly determined by direct measurement (invoices and ERP system)

2 Estimates based on purchases and their material composition

3 The drinking water used as raw material is not taken into account here as the water input is already included in the water consumption. Otherwise, the share of renewable materials would be significantly higher.

Waste quantitiesin tonnes

2017 2016 Change in %

Normal waste

Composting 46 40 + 14.7

Reuse 51 33 + 54.3

Recycling 695 722 – 3.7

Recovery 6 6 + 0.5

Incineration or use as fuel 381 442 – 13.7

Landfill 22 27 – 17.4

Other disposal 33 26 + 26.1

1,235 1,297 – 5.0

Hazardous waste

Recycling 9 1 + 871.3

Recovery 7 11 – 38.0

Incineration or use as fuel 78 58 + 34.5

Landfill 0 2 – 80.4

Other disposal 16 3 + 432.3

111 75 + 47.0 1

Total 1,346 1,372 – 1.9

1 Due to a legal reclassification in France from non-hazardous to hazardous waste, this has increased.

Employees of the Weleda Group

Employees of the Weleda Group at a glanceas at December 31st 2017

Region D – A – CH 1

Western Europe 1

Northern, Central and

Eastern Europe 1

North America 1 South America, Italy, Spain 1

Asia / Pacific 1 Total

Number of male employees 928 379 81 20 238 54 1,700

Number of female employees 462 144 13 10 97 14 740

Total number of employees 1,390 523 94 30 335 68 2,440

Total number of female managers, in per cent 46 % 62 % 53 % 75 % 56 % 50 % 57 %

Total number of managers 199 99 15 16 52 6 387

Nature of employment

Full-time employees 863 356 76 29 295 17 1,636

Part-time employees 527 167 14 1 40 53 802

Of whom female part-time employees 467 145 14 1 37 42 706

Of whom male part-time employees 60 22 0 0 3 9 94

Total number of trainees 2 41 32 1 0 7 0 81

Employment by age group

Up to 30 years of age 250 55 24 3 79 3

31 to 50 years of age 744 304 61 3 215 3

51 to 60 years of age 336 136 5 3 30 3

Over 60 years of age 60 28 4 3 12 3

Number of nationalities 4 31 12 8 1 12 8 49

Total number of newborns 52 14 3 0 10 1 80

1 Explanation of regions: D – A – CH: Germany, Austria, Switzerland Western Europe: France, UK, Benelux (Netherlands, Belgium) Northern, Central and Eastern Europe: Sweden, Russia, Czech Republic (incl. Slovakia), Ukraine North America: USA South America, Italy, Spain: Argentina / Chile, Brazil, Italy, Spain Asia / Pacific: Australia, New Zealand (excluding Japan, as minority holding)

2 State-certified training or studies

3 Employment by age group cannot be disclosed for legal reasons.

4 Refers to the employees’ country of origin (country issuing the passport). Employees with two passports have selected a country. The following countries are represented: Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia, Brazil, Cameroon, Congo, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Iraq, Italy, Ivory Coast, Kosovo, Liechtenstein, Montenegro, Morocco, Netherlands, Nigeria, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, UK, Ukraine, Uruguay, USA.

80 81

N O T E SE M P L O Y E E S


GRI indicators index

We base our corporate responsibility reporting on the internationally recognised guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). In this report we have adapted the indicators used so far to GRI Standard 2016. As a result, some of the previous indicators are no longer used, and new ones have been added.

Our contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals

We have aligned the actions we have taken so far with the Sustainable Development Goals published in 2015 by the United Nations. This enhances transparency and traceability as well as safeguarding nature and the needs of our cultivation partners. The Sustainable Development Goals were compiled by the United Nations and aim to transform the world by 2030. They include 17 global goals with 169 subsidiary targets.

Standard disclosures

Index Page

102-1 Name of the organisation Titel

102-2 Activities, brands, products, and services 1, 8 – 13

102-3 Location of headquarters 1, 86, U3

102-4 Location of operations 86

102-5 Ownership and legal form 1

102-6 Markets served 40

102-7 Scale of the organisation 1

102-8 Information on employees and other workers 81

102-8-a Total number of employees as either head count or full-time equivalent (FTE), with the chosen approach stated and applied consistently 81

102-8-b Total number of employees by con-tract type and full-time and part-time status of employees based on the definitions under the national laws of the country where they are based 81

102-8-c Total number of employees by employment (full-time and part-time) and gender-divided 81

102-9 (new)

Supply chains18 – 21

102-10 Significant changes to the organisation and its supply chain 2, 18 – 21

102-11 (new)

Precautionary Principle or approach83, 85

102-14 (new)

Statement from senior decision-maker3 – 4

102-16 Values, principles, standards, and norms of behaviour 5, 85

102-18 Governance structure 3 – 4, 81

102-50 Reporting period U3

102-51 Date of most recent report U3

102-52 Reporting cycle U3

102-53 Contact point for questions regarding the report U3

102-54 (new)

Claims of reporting 1 – 2, U3

102-55 GRI content index 82

102-56 (new)

External assurance62, 77

Economic metrics

Index Page

201-1 Direct economic value generated and distributed

Inside cover page, 36

203-1 Infrastructure investments and services supported

Inside cover page

203-2 (new)

Significant indirect economic impacts 34 – 41

Environmental metrics

Index Page

301-1 Materials used by weight or volume 78 – 80

302-1 Energy consumption within the organisation 78

302-3 (new)

Energy intensity25

303-1 Water withdrawal by source 79

304-1 Operational sites owned, leased, managed in, or adjacent to, protected areas and areas of high biodiversity value outside protected areas 22 – 25

304-2 Significant impacts of activities, prod-ucts, and services on biodiversity 14 – 17

304-3 (new)

Habitats protected or restored14 – 17

305-1 Direct (Scope 1) GHG emissions 79

305-2 (new)

Energy indirect (Scope 2) GHG emissions 79

306-2 Waste by type and disposal method 80

Social metrics

Index Page

405-1 Diversity of governance bodies and employees 81

413-1 (new)

Operations with local community engagement, impact assessments, and development programme

22 – 25, 30 – 33

417-1 Requirements for product and service information and labelling 8 – 13

The Global Reporting Initiative was founded in 1997 by the Coalition of Environmentally Responsible Economies (Ceres) and the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP). Detailed information can be found online at www.globalreporting.org.

– Compliance with social criteria along our raw material supply chains (e. g. annual negotiations on cost-based prices, supplements for organic cultivation, guaranteed minimum income pursuant to the UEBT standard)

– Planning security for smallholders through long-term contracts

– Financial support for individual social projects within the raw material supply chains

– Preserving rural life by supporting small enterprises

– Promotion of site and soil quality with raw materials from organic farming, biodynamic agriculture and controlled wild collection

– Use of non-GMO seeds only– Social projects with raw material

suppliers– Guaranteeing food security in cul-

tivation and collection regions pursuant to the UEBT standard

– Promoting anthroposophic medicine and therapeutic diversity as well as medicine free from antibiotics

– Variety of programmes for employees to strengthen resilience

– Educating customers on health through publications and events

– Ensuring health and safety along our raw material supply chains pursuant to the UEBT standard

– Social projects to support education in our raw material supply chains

– Various programmes for employees and trainees/students

– Cooperations with universities and other institutions of higher education

– Ensuring equality between men and women along our raw material supply chains pursuant to the UEBT standard

– Award of contracts to Haus Lindenhof for the employment of people with disabilities

– Promotion of equal rights among both our suppliers and our employees

– High proportion of women and women in management positions

– Products do not contain micro-plastics and other persistent or water-polluting substances

– Production: invested greatly in effective and efficient water management and highly efficient equipment in production facilities

– Avoidance of contributing pesti-cides to ground water by making maximum possible use of raw materials from organic cultivation

– Social projects such as building a well in Uganda

– In regions with water scarcity, seeking options for resource- conserving irrigation in cultivation

– Access to clean drinking water for all involved along our raw material supply chains pursuant to the UEBT standard

– Effective and efficient energy management in production (e. g. switch to LED)

– Manufacturing our products using renewable energy and own photovoltaic system

– Construction of new buildings according to sustainable standard (e. g. new build in Arlesheim)

– Ensuring compliance with inter-nationally recognised social and environmental standards in the supply chain pursuant to the UEBT standard

– Progressively increasing financial resilience and future viability of the company

– Weleda as a “place of human development based on shared tasks” with wide range of meas-ures and offers for employees

– Guided by our vision and mission for the benefit of people and nature

– Supporting growers in establishing local infrastructure

– Promoting the independence of our suppliers

– Start-up and failure financing for individual suppliers

– Investment in own infrastructure

– Ensuring compliance with ILO standards through supply chain management system pursuant to the UEBT standard

– The “Diversity wins! Weleda creates prospects for people who have experienced displacement” programme and the active pro mo-tion of diversity

– Actively working with the commu-nities in which Weleda is based

– Promotion of rural living within the supply chain

– Sustainable products for the good of people, in harmony with nature

– Effective and efficient use of resources and reduction of waste in production (e. g. recycling around 98 per cent of waste), deployment of environmental management systems at main sites

– Circular economy in our own bio-dynamic medicinal plant cultivation

– Inspiration through visitor’s centre and gardens, events and publications

– Our biodynamic garden as an example of resistant, sustainable agriculture and closed material cycles

– Transparency regarding company emissions and measures for reduction

– The prudent use of natural resources along raw material supply chains in cultivation and wild collection pursuant to the UEBT standard

– Products without microplastics and other persistent or water- polluting substances

– Organic or biodynamic farming or certified wild collection account for 80 per cent of raw materials

– Active efforts to improve both soil fertility and biodiversity in pro-jects with farmers pursuant to the UEBT standard

– Support for seed initiatives; no use of GMO seeds

– Active and political engagement on the topic of palm oil

– Prevention of deforestation for paper and cardboard products

– Respectful dealings with suppliers and increasing transparency through the supply chain manage-ment system pursuant to the UEBT standard

– Global governance guidelines– As an anthroposophically inspired

company, supporting and promoting the guiding principles as a contri-bution to a fair, diverse and peace-ful world

– Active member of numerous health and sustainability initiatives and associations

– Global cooperations with manu-facturers and farmers

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N O T E SS U S TA I N A B L E D E V E L O P M E N T G O A L S

N O T E SG R I I N D I C AT O R S I N D E X

Transparent and solid business management

Weleda places great value on a transparent management structure and an open communication culture. The rules for good corporate governance are laid down in the Company’s articles of association and organisational regulations.

Control and risk managementThe primary objective of risk management is to ensure the long-term survival of the company – as a basis for further development. Risk reporting to the Audit Committee and the Board of Directors takes place half-yearly. The material content and elements of Weleda’s Group-wide risk policy have been documented and described in a comprehensive control and risk management system (KuRS). The Audit Committee is a fundamental element of the management structure, with responsibility for compliance with Weleda’s corporate governance.

Audit Committee

MembersTwo members of the Audit Committee, Dr Jürg Galliker (Chairman) and Dr Andreas Jäschke, are also members of the Board of Directors. With Dr Patrick Scarpelli, partner at cctm AG in Basel, an external specialist is also represented.

TasksThe function of the Audit Committee is to provide effec-tive support to the Board of Directors in monitoring corpo-rate governance. This includes:

– monitoring the integrity of financial reporting and the Group’s internal control system as well as monitoring compliance with legal and internal regulations

– monitoring the independence and performance of the independent external auditors (auditors and Group audi-tors) and the internal auditing department

Weleda institutes new management structureEffective September 1st 2017, the Board of Directors decided to replace the existing management model of a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) with a cooperative manage-ment system. This change has wide-ranging consequences for the structure of Weleda.

In the course of the restructuring, the organisational reg-ulations, the rules of procedure of the Executive Board and Board of Directors, the Audit Committee regulations as well as the remuneration and expense regulations of the Board of Directors have been completely revised. The new management model also requires amendment of the communication, collaboration and decision-making pro-cesses which must now be developed, tested and imple-mented. A challenging, though extremely exciting task for our employees, and above all our management bodies (Board of Directors and Executive Board).

New strategic framework conditionsOn the basis of the Company’s articles of association, the principles and guidelines adopted by the principal share-holders (previously: Owner’s strategy), the vision and mis-sion as well as the new organisational regulations of Weleda AG, the Board of Directors and Executive Board together developed the new strategic framework con-ditions. Guided by these framework conditions, the Exe-cutive Board conceived various strategic initiatives for the future of Weleda which were adopted by the Board of Directors at their meeting of December 8 th 2017.

Code of Conduct confirmed. Internal control system expanded to include all companies worldwideIn the course of the fundamental restructuring of Weleda, the Board of Directors confirmed the Code of Conduct 2017 that was adopted in 2011 and which applies world-wide. The Code includes the fundamental rules of conduct that apply to all members of staff. This includes the han-dling of information and company assets, the prevention of conflicts of interest, interaction with third parties and business partners, as well as issues of occupational health and safety, fire safety and environmental protection. Lastly, Weleda expanded the internal control system – which already applies in France, Germany and Switzer-land – to include all Weleda companies worldwide. These steps have once again improved the risk and controlling processes at Weleda.

Certifications of Weleda countries

Weleda actively pursues environmental management and works to improve social and working conditions. Independent experts have confirmed compliance with internationally recognised standards by awarding the following certifications.

Switzerland

Weleda AGDychweg 14

4144 ArlesheimSwitzerland

Tel. +41 61 705 21 21www.weleda.ch

Certified in accordance with ISO 14001 and

EMAS / Verified Environ-mental Management

Italy

Weleda Italia S. r. l.Via del Ticino 6

20153 MilanItaly

Tel. +39 02 487 70 51www.weleda.it

Certified in accordance with SA 8000 (Social

Accountability Standard)

Germany

Weleda AGMöhlerstr. 3 – 5

73525 Schwäbisch GmündGermany

Tel. +49 7171 91 90www.weleda.de

Certified in accordance with ISO 14001 and EMAS / Verified Environmental Management,

D-135-00032, certified in accordance with audit

beruf undfamilie

France

Weleda S. A.9, rue Eugène Jung

68331 Huningue CedexFrance

Tel. +33 38 969 68 00www.weleda.fr

Certified in accordance with ISO 14001

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N O T E SC O R P O R AT E G O V E R N A N C E

N O T E SC E R T I F I C AT I O N S

Weleda worldwide

Switzerland

Weleda AGDychweg 144144 ArlesheimSwitzerlandTel. +41 61 705 21 21www.weleda.chwww.weleda.com

Weleda TrademarkDychweg 144144 ArlesheimSwitzerlandTel. +41 61 705 20 50

Germany

Weleda AGMöhlerstr. 3 – 573525 Schwäbisch GmündGermanyTel. +49 7171 91 90www.weleda.de

Argentina

Weleda S. A.Ramallo 2566C1429DUR Buenos AiresArgentinaTel. +54 11 4704 4700www.weleda.com.ar

Australia

Weleda Australia Pty LtdUnit 16 No. 2 Daydream Street Warriewood 2102 (Access via Daydream Street)AustraliaTel. +61 2 9997 5171www.weleda.com.au

Austria

Weleda Ges. m. b. H & Co. KGHosnedlgasse 271220 WienAustriaTel. +43 1256 60 60www.weleda.at

Benelux

Weleda Benelux SEPlatinastraat 1612718 SR ZoetermeerNetherlandsTel. +31 79 363 13 13www.weleda.nlwww.weleda.be

Brazil

Weleda do Brasil Laboratório e Farmácia Ltda.Rua Brigadeiro Henrique Fontenelle 33Parque São DomingosCEP 05125000São PauloBrazilTel. +55 11 3648 8388www.weleda.com.br

Chile

Weleda Chile SpAEvaristo Lillo 78, Of. 41Las CondesSantiago de ChileChileTel. +56 02 240 2700www.weleda.cl

Czech Republic

Weleda spol. s. r. o.Lidickà 336 / 28150 00 Praha 5Czech RepublicTel. +420 25 731 58 88www.weleda.cz

France

Weleda France S. A.9, rue Eugène JungCS 20152 – 68331 Huningue CedexFranceTel. +33 38 969 68 00www.weleda.fr

Italy

Weleda Italia S. r. l.Via del Ticino 620153 MilanoItalyTel. +39 02 487 70 51www.weleda.it

Japan

Weleda Japan Co., LtdEbisu IS building 4 F13 – 6, Ebisu 1, Shibuya-kuTokyo 150-0013JapanTel. +81 52232 1165www.weleda.jp

New Zealand

Weleda (NZ) Ltd302 Te Mata RoadP. O. Box 8132Havelock North 4157New ZealandTel. +64 6 872 87 00www.weleda.co.nz

Russia

Weleda East LLCBolshaya Polyanka 7/10 str.3119180 MoscowRussiaTel. +7 495 545 4285www.weleda.ru

Slovakia

Weleda spol. s. r. o. organizačná zložka(branch of Weleda Czech Republic)M. Schneidera-Trnavského 6 84101 BratislavaSlovak RepublicTel. +421 905 815 829www.weleda.sk

Spain

Weleda S. A. U.Calle Manuel Tovar 128034 MadridSpainTel. +34 91 358 03 58www.weleda.es

Sweden

Weleda ABLudvigsbergsgatan 2011823 StockholmSwedenTel. +46 85 515 18 00www.weleda.se

Ukraine

Weleda Ukraine LLC Kyrilivska str. 604080 KievUkraineTel. +380 44 333 7108www.weleda.ua

United Kingdom

Weleda UK LtdHeanor RoadIlkestonDerbyshireDE7 8DRUnited KingdomTel. +44 11 5944 8222www.weleda.co.uk

USA

Weleda North America (Weleda Inc.)1 Bridge StreetSuite 42IrvingtonN. Y. 10533USATel. +1 800 241 1030www.usa.weleda.com

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A D D R E S S E S

The Annual and Sustain-

ability Report 2017

of the Weleda Group and

Weleda AG is available

in English and German. The

German version is binding.

Weleda AG produces its

Annual and Sustainability

Report on a yearly basis.

The last report produced

was the Annual and Sus-

tainability Report 2016 of

the Weleda Group and

Weleda AG.

Date of publicationMay 9th 2018

Issued byWeleda AGDychweg 144144 ArlesheimSwitzerlandwww.weleda.com

EditorsFrédéric AnklinChristian von ArnimChrista BareißMichael BrennerMartin CadoschRebekka DubachDr Nina DziatzkoAnette EngelBirgit FrankAndrea FreundCharlotte Gollnick(project management)Florian GürtlerMurat HanerDr Isabella HeidingerTobias JakobAntonia JeismannMarcel LocherSusi LotzClara NeumannChristine PfistererAnnette PiperidisBas SchneidersMario SchuhmacherTheo Stepp (editorial responsibility)Michael StraubSonja M. Thiele (picture editor) Bettina Wyciok

ProofreadingClaudia Marolf

PhotosPortraits and coverAnne MorgensternJames ChororosBoard of Directors and Executive BoardAnne MorgensternReportFotolia – AloisBernd JonkmannsElly LucasMarko MestrovicFlorin und Elena PacurarMichael PeuckertWeleda archives

Illustration and insertAnja Stiehler-Patschan / Jutta Fricke Illustrators

DesignAnzinger und Rasp, Munich

Printed byDruckerei Lokay e. K.Königsberger Str. 364354 Reinheim

PaperCover and insertVivus 89, 100 % recycled from waste paperInner sectionCircle matt whiteFSC-certifiedDer Blaue Engel certification RAL-UZ 195EU Ecolabel100 % recycled paper

Contact for questions regarding the reportTheo SteppCorporate CommunicationsTel. +49 7171 919 [email protected]

Art. no. 00085515 (CH)Art. no. 50242100 (D)

P U B L I C AT I O N D E TA I L S

Involvement in organisations

We are committed to issues that align with our values. These include integrative medicine, fair trade, biodiversity and the promotion of intercultural understanding. Below is an overview of the most important associations and initiatives Weleda is working with in Germany and Switzerland.

Assoziation ökologischer Lebensmittel hersteller (Association of Organic Food Processors – AöL)Participation in the sustainability working group; engagement for organic, humane and sustain able foodstuffs

B. A. U. M.Member since 2002; the largest corporate network for sustainable business in Europe, with well over 500 members

Biodiversity in Good CompanyActive board member; consortium of companies from numerous sectors which collaborate to promote the protection and sustainable use of global biodiversity

Cancún Business and Biodiversity PledgeSignatory of the Declaration of Commitment to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) for the protection and sustainable use of biodiversity; signatory of the Convention on Biological Diversity at the 13 th Conference of the Parties (COP 13)

Charta der Vielfalt (Diversity Charter)Signatory of the corporate initiative to promote diversity in com-panies and institutions which has already been signed by over 2,750 companies and public bodies; patron: German Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel

Dachverband Anthroposophische Medizin in Deutschland (Umbrella Association for Anthroposophic Medicine in Germany – DAMiD)Active member; joint platform for professional associations in anthroposophic medicine and manufacturers of anthroposophic pharmaceuticals

Dachverband Komplementärmedizin ( Umbrella Association for Complementary Medicine – DAKOMED)Active member; engaged in promoting the political recognition of complementary medicine in the Swiss healthcare system

Demeter Germany and Demeter Baden-WürttembergActive member; cultivation association for biodynamic agriculture

European Coalition on Homeopathic & Anthroposophic Medicinal Products – ECHAMPActive board member; active involvement in European manufacturer’s association and commitment to the development and availability of homoeopathic and anthroposophic medicinal products

Forum for Sustainable Palm Oil – FONAPChair of the executive board; objective: to significantly increase the proportion of segregated, certified palm oil and palm kernel oil or their respective derivatives in the German, Austrian and Swiss markets

Getreidezüchtung Peter Kunz (Peter Kunz Cereal Cultivation – GZPK, Association for Crop Development)Active member; financial and analytical support for the cultivation of open-pollinated self-reproducing sunflowers; cultivation of suitable varieties for sustainable agriculture

Hortus officinarum, Association for Biodynamic Seeds of Medicinal PlantsFinancial support and provision of infrastructure for the biodynamic breeding and propagation of medicinal plants; board member

Hufelandgesellschaft, Umbrella Organisation of the Medical Associations for Naturopathy and Complementary MedicineSponsoring member; engages with policymakers, public authorities and science and research institutions on behalf of naturaland comple-mentary medicine

Kneipp-Bund (Kneipp Association)Member; federal association for the promotion of health and the prevention of diseases

NATRUEFounder member of the international, non-profit asso-ciation of natural cosmetic manufacturers; mission: to protect and promote natural and organic cosmetics for the benefit of consumers worldwide. Working at political level for the promotion of natural cosmetics

Netzwerk Kräuter (herb network)Founding member and CFO; association to promote the cultivation of medicinal, aromatic and cosmetic plants. Information platform for the exchange of information on cultivation, processing, research and advice

Netzwerk Unternehmen integrieren Flüchtlinge (network of companies to integrate refugees)Involvement in the Germany-wide network; initiative of the Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry (DIHK), supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, to integrate refugees in German enterprises

öbu – Swiss Business Council for Sustainable DevelopmentMember and supporter of political initiatives; counts around 360 companies, organisations and institutions among its members and supports them to further develop their sustainability management

Runder Tisch der Charta der Vielfalt zur Flüchtlingshilfe (Round Table of the Diversity Charter to assist Refugees)Involvement in the German nationwide company network

Schweizer Initiative für Anthropo sophische Medizin (Swiss Initiative for Anthroposophic Medicine – SIAM)Active member; joint platform for professional asso-ciations, foundations, clinics, training centres and pharmaceutical manufacturers of the anthroposophic medical movement

Schweizer Verband für komplementär medizinische Heilmittel (Swiss Association for Complementary Medicinal Products – SVKH)Active board member representing the interests of manufacturers of complementary medicines and plant-based pharmaceuticals in Switzerland; involvement in appropriate legislation relating to these pharmaceuticals

Sustainable Leadership Forum (SLF)Founding member of the work and discussion platform for pioneers of sustainable corporate development together with B. A .U . M. and the Leuphana University of Lüneburg’s Centre for Sustainability Management (CSM)

Union for Ethical BioTrade (UEBT)Full member and chair of the board of directors; strengthening fair trade and maintaining biodiversity in raw materials sourcing

Wir zusammen (We together)Signatory of the initiative of German industry to support the integration of refugees in Germany

N O T E SI N V O LV E M E N T I N O R G A N I S AT I O N S

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